Jenrry Mejia Says Baseball Officials Orchestrated His Lifetime Ban

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Jenrry Mejia, pictured at his lawyer’s office on Thursday, is trying to fight his lifetime ban from baseball after three failed tests for performance-enhancing substances.

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Christopher Gregory for The New York Times

Jenrry Mejia, the Mets pitcher who was permanently barred from baseball after three failed doping tests, claims that he was the victim of a witch hunt by Major League Baseball and that the players’ union did not properly advocate on his behalf.

Baseball’s drug-testing program, which is jointly administered with the players’ union, caught Mejia using anabolic steroids three times. He was penalized twice in 2015, then received the permanent suspension last month.

But Mejia, 26, said in an interview Thursday that he was guilty only of the first doping offense. After the second positive test, which he said was somehow inaccurate, he was pressured by Major League Baseball officials to share information about his doping connections, he said.

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