Yeah you read that headline correctly… Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera who was suspended 50 games for testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone created a fake website and product to cover his tracks when approached by the league.
Cabrera was having a phenomenal year with the Giants, winning the All-Star game MVP Award and being considered as the MVP of the National League so it wasn’t too surprising to learn of his positive test given his career as a pretty mediocre MLB player. The lengths he went though to create an alibi was pretty amazing.
From the New York Daily News:
The scheme began unfolding in July as Cabrera and his representatives scrambled to explain a spike in the former Yankee’s testosterone levels. Cabrera associate Juan Nunez, described by the player’s agents, Seth and Sam Levinson, as a “paid consultant” of their firm but not an “employee,” is alleged to have paid $10,000 to acquire the phony website. The idea, apparently, was to lay a trail of digital breadcrumbs suggesting Cabrera had ordered a supplement that ended up causing the positive test, and to rely on a clause in the collectively bargained drug program that allows a player who has tested positive to attempt to prove he ingested a banned substance through no fault of his own.
Nunez told The News Saturday that he was “accepting responsibility for what everyone else already knows,” regarding the fake website, adding that the Levinsons were not involved in the website in any way. They also adamantly deny any knowledge of the scheme or having been involved with it.
Obviously Cabrera knew for some time that there was a good possibility of him getting caught and the plan devised by Nunez and himself didn’t have much leg with Major League Baseball. Furthermore according to the New York Daily News, Cabrera was just trying to “repeat the success Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun found earlier this year in challenging the evidence in arbitration.” I am pretty sure Braun didn’t go to that length though.
h/t: New York Daily News, The Big Lead
