Podcast: Former MLB standout Chris Colabello on PED fallout

Former Blue Jays first baseman Chris Colabello tested positive for a banned substance in 2016. (Getty Images)

The latest guest on The Base Path Podcast is a rising star as a hitting instructor and the co-founder of the hitting platform Pelotero, Chris Colabello.

Colabello is a former Assumption star first baseman who worked his way through years of Independent League baseball to crack the big leagues at the age of 29. He had his best season with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015, hitting .321 with 15 home runs. 

Early in the 2016 season, Colabello was handed an 80-game suspension due to testing positive for a trace amount of a PED called Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (DHCMT). The suspension effectively ended Colabello’s big league career. The Framingham, Mass., native struggled with depression once he returned to various minor league assignments. Colabello and other suspended players spent years working to clear their names, spearheading a change in MLB’s drug testing policy in regard to DHCMT. The league no longer tests for the substance.

“That doesn’t help me go back and play, which would’ve been certainly the only thing that I cared to do at the time,” Colabello said. “So, it’s been a lot of work. I had to be at the forefront of a lot of the discussions. I don’t blame people, honestly. There were a lot of people that said, ‘I didn’t do this, I didn’t do this.’ And we found out they were lying later. So, I think the automatic assumption was to assume people were lying.”

Colabello continues to explain his story as he builds a career on the instructional side of the game.

“I knew that the only way we were going to do something about it was if I talked about it, and I talked about it adamantly with conviction and authenticity,” Colabello said. “I learned at a very young age that telling the truth is way easier than lying because it just makes things easy. I’ve almost felt this compulsion to convince the people that didn’t want to believe that I was telling the truth.”

Colabello believes the suspension cost him over $10 million, as he was preparing to sign an extension with the Blue Jays at the time of the positive test.

“I loved Toronto so much; I loved my experience there,” Colabello said. “I loved my teammates. I loved the city. I loved the stadium. I loved the people in the front office so much that I said to my agent, ‘I need to finish my career here.’ I said, ‘Whatever they put on the table, we’ll take it.’ I was looking at a three-year deal worth about $8 million or a four-year deal worth $11 million. My production to that point spoke for itself. I was playing at or above that value according to WAR.”

Listen to the entire podcast with Chris Colabello.

The New England Baseball Journal podcast is brought to you by the University of Nebraska High School.

For advertising opportunities, please contact advertising@seamansmedia.com.