Did An MLB Star Pay A Teammate $2.5 Million To Take The Fall On A Drug Test?

Dozens of Major League Baseball players have been suspended for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, but relatively few stars have been caught. Could it be that there should be one more star on this list, but he instead paid his less heralded teammate millions of dollars to take the fall for him?

The other day we were sent a tip that alleged this. It is probably bullshit—we get wild stuff sent to our tips inbox ( [email protected]!) daily—but some reporting around the edges of the story didn’t turn up anything conclusive to disprove it and even turned up some circumstantial reasons to think it’s true.

Anyway, here is the relevant recounting of a night at the bar from the tip:

[College baseball player] pulled out his phone and showed [bar patron] photos of him at a party with [MLB player] and [MLB player.]

The two then had a conversation about one of the players in the photos:

Bar Patron: Too bad [MLB player] got suspended.

College Baseball Player: Yeah, [MLB player] didn’t even do it.

Bar Patron: Yeah... haha wait what?

College Baseball Player: [MLB player’s star teammate] paid him to take his blood test. $2.5 million dollars.

Bar Patron: How does that even work?

College Baseball Player: [MLB player] and [MLB player’s star teammate] were getting tested the same day. They traded samples.

We think our drunken college baseball player might have meant a urine test and not a blood test, but either way, a professional baseball player agreeing to be paid two-and-a-half million dollars so his star teammate could continue playing would be an incredible story.

Do you know anything about this? If so, please email me at [email protected].

(If you don’t know anything about this specifically but do know about this market, by the way, do you think $2.5 million is the going rate for taking the fall for somebody else’s failed drug test? High? Low?)