A clarification needs to be made in the case of suspended righthander Michael Pineda.
Pineda was handed an 80-game suspension after failing a drug test during the second half of last season. The suspension was reduced to 60 games after he appealed to say he used the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide, which can be used as a masking device for PEDs, for weight loss. He sat out the remaining 21 games of the regular season, and the belief was that he had 39 games left on his suspension once this season begins.
Not so fast. A Twins official on Thursday confirmed that the three American League division series games against the Yankees — all won by New York — also counted toward his punishment. So Pineda's remaining suspension is 36 games, not 39.
Pineda signed a two-year, $20 million contract coming into this season after going 11-5 with a 4.01 ERA in 2019. The Twins originally signed Pineda to a two-year contract before the 2018 season, which he missed while recovering from elbow surgery and a subsequent knee injury, but he emerged as one of their best starters in 2019.
He forfeited roughly $984,000 of his $8 million salary for sitting out the final 23 days (and 21 games) of the regular season. He was also four innings shy of reaching 150 innings for the season — a benchmark that would have come with a $500,000 bonus, plus another half-million for every 10 additional innings.
