apparently, according to AA and others, if stroman was on the big league team then he would not have been suspended, but rather only given a warning. so for anyone blowing this out of proportion and ready to write off his career as a jay, tough luck, as it appears this was an example of the most minor of banned-substance related infractions a player could possibly commit.
not to defend such ignorance of course, but this would have been a total non-story if stroman was already with the jays.
from djf
“If Stroman had been on the 40-man roster, whether he was at the big league level or had been optioned down to the minor leagues, all he would have gotten was a warning,” Anthopoulos said, striking directly at the key reason this whole damn thing is a non-issue not worth of discussion for half a bloody radio hit. What might have been worth further exploration, however, was when he next explained that “We could have easily just said, ‘he’s getting a call-up in September,’ and this wouldn’t have been announced, he would have got a warning like, I’m sure, a lot of other players around the league have gotten– something like this. We didn’t feel it was the right thing to do. He’s in the minor leagues, and whether it was ignorance, negligence, that’s not an excuse, and unfortunately he has to pay the price for it. Though it wasn’t his intent, we weren’t going to certainly try to circumvent those things, and we’re going to stand by the program.”