Free agent outfielder Max Kepler has been suspended 80 video games after testing optimistic for Epitrenbolone, a banned performance-enhancing drug, Main League Baseball introduced Friday. Kepler performed all the 2025 season with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Underneath MLB’s Joint Drug Settlement, PED suspensions cowl common season and postseason video games “wherein the Participant would have been eligible to play.” Kepler can serve the suspension whereas a free agent, ought to he stay unsigned. If he does signal, he is not going to be paid throughout the suspension. Kepler is not going to be eligible to play within the 2026 postseason.

Kepler, 33 subsequent month, authored a .216/.300/.391 batting line with 18 house runs in 2025. That features .216/.305/.399 line towards righties. By OPS+, Kepler has been a below-average hitter 4 occasions within the final 4 years. Nook outfield protection is simply so precious. Kepler was more likely to accept a small one-year management previous to the suspension.

In components of 11 MLB seasons, the primary 10 of which have been spent with the Minnesota Twins, Kepler owns a .235/.316/.425 line with 179 house runs and 20.6 WAR. His finest yr was 2019, when he slugged 36 house runs. (A number of homer data have been set that yr.)

We didn’t rank Kepler among the many offseason’s prime 50 free brokers.