{"id":65664,"date":"2025-07-02T20:45:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=65664"},"modified":"2025-07-02T20:45:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:45:37","slug":"braves-designate-alex-verdugo-for-assignment-as-jurickson-profar-returns-from-ped-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=65664","title":{"rendered":"Braves designate Alex Verdugo for assignment as Jurickson Profar returns from PED suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Atlanta Braves have designated veteran outfielder Alex Verdugo for assignment, the team announced Wednesday. Verdugo’s departure clears space for fellow outfielder Jurickson Profar, who returns from a PED suspension to face the\u00a0Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday (GameTracker).<\/p>\n

Profar, 32, was banished for 80 games in late March after testing positive for Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG), a substance prohibited by Major League Baseball. In four contests prior to the suspension, he went 3 for 15 with no extra-base hits and two more strikeouts than walks. According to the Cleveland Clinic, hCG is a “hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy” that “helps thicken a person’s uterine lining to support a growing embryo and tells the body to stop menstruation The hormone stimulates the corpus luteum to produce progesterone to maintain the pregnancy.”<\/p>\n

Profar signed a three-year pact worth $42 million with the Braves in the spring after enjoying a banner season with the San Diego Padres. He hit .280\/.380\/.459 (134 OPS+) and earned a spot in the All-Star Game as well as a Silver Slugger Award and downballot consideration for the MVP award.<\/p>\n

Should the Braves make the postseason, Profar will not be eligible to partake as part of his punishment for failing the performance-enhancing drug test. Of course, it’s unclear at this point if the Braves will qualify for the tournament. They entered Wednesday with a 38-46 record, putting them 7 \u00bd games back of the third and final National League wild-card spot. The Braves have a positive run differential, yet they possess one of the worst records in the majors in one-run games. Still, if Profar can perform anything like last season, he’ll be a major boon in their efforts to correct their course.<\/p>\n

Verdugo, 29, hit just .239\/.296\/.289 with no home runs and 10 extra-base hits in 56 games. Atlanta deployed him in a strict platoon role, with more than 85% of his plate appearances coming against right-handed pitching. Nonetheless, Verdugo was unable to fare better than a 65 OPS+ that would have represented the worst mark of his big-league career if it had sustained over the rest of the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Profar was reinstated from his 80-game suspension Wednesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":65665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nBraves designate Alex Verdugo for assignment as Jurickson Profar returns from PED suspension - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=65664\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Braves designate Alex Verdugo for assignment as Jurickson Profar returns from PED suspension - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Profar was reinstated from his 80-game suspension Wednesday\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=65664\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-02T20:45:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/avtvip-57.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=65664\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=65664\",\"name\":\"Braves designate Alex Verdugo for assignment as Jurickson Profar returns from PED suspension - 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