Former Cardinals Pitcher Carlos Martinez, Already Suspended for PEDs, Now Also Suspended Under Domestic Violence Policy

Former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez was a dominant pitcher, when healthy, through the 2019 season. From there, he fell rapidly and dramatically, even as he was only 28. Health was the primary reason, but who knows exactly what was going on. The Cardinals let him walk after last season.

This year, Martinez had a minor league deal with the Red Sox to try to work his way back to the big leagues, but his time there lasted just two starts in May, and then he kinda vanished. Soon after, he tested positive for a PED and was suspended 80 games.

From there, maybe there was even more ugliness going on behind the scenes, because now he’s ALSO been suspended under the league’s domestic violence policy:

An 85-game suspension is among the longer ones, and suggests that whatever is at issue was very serious. Again, who knows exactly what’s going on, but the whole situation is just bad news. Ugly, ugly stuff.

It goes without saying that the combined suspensions almost certainly mark the end of Martinez’s career at age 30.

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Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation. You can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation, on Bluesky at @Brett-Taylor, and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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