Former Blue Jay Chris Colabello relives PED suspension that ended his career

Article content

Former Blue Jays slugger Chris Colabello was suspended for 80 days in April 2016 after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

To this day, he maintains his innocent.

Colabello insisted in a recent social media post that his test results were for trace amounts of the anabolic steroid known as dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (DHCMT) and that people who “who get exposed via a simple touch of the skin on their hand, neck, and arm” can test positive without ever ingesting the drug.

“Not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about it, or tried to find the answers as to how and why this happened,” he said in a lengthy post on X.

“The effects that getting suspended (for something I would never dream of doing) had on me, are inexplicable,” Colabello added.

“They caused depression and anxiety that made me seek out professional help,” he said. “They caused a two-year stretch in my life where I couldn’t enjoy the game that I have loved as much as I’ve ever loved anything. They caused strain on relationships in my life, and created a burden on my wife and parents that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

His dreamy Cinderella story — rising from the lowest levels of professional baseball to an AL East championship team — came to a screaming halt and the fan favourite’s tale quickly turned into a nightmare a mere 10 games into his second season with Toronto.

Colabello never returned to MLB-level baseball, and instead played for some minor league and independent teams before retiring in 2019.

“I’ve continued to stand by my story, and that I could never, would never, and have never compromised the integrity of the game of baseball,” he wrote.

Four days after his suspension, he professed his innocence in an interview with Sportsnet’s Jamie Campbell during which he vowed to uncover how he could test positive for DHCMT.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

The former first baseman and outfielder noted that he is not alone.

“I’ve watched other athletes in baseball and other sports go through the same things that I did,” he wrote. “I’ve listened to them cry into the phone the same way I did. I’ve listened to them tell me they couldn’t eat or sleep for weeks at a time. I’ve felt the same pain they have. That feeling of being on a deserted island by themselves, where nobody would listen to them, or believe them.”