Report: Ortiz, Ramirez Tested Positive for PEDs in 2003

David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez are on the 2003 list of Major League Baseball players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, according to a report in The New York Times.

Lawyers with knowledge of the results told the Times that Ortiz and Ramirez are among the 104 players on the list.

“The information about Ramirez and Ortiz emerged through interviews with multiple lawyers and others connected to the pending litigation,” the report says. “The lawyers spoke anonymously because the testing information is under seal by a court order. The lawyers did not identify which drugs were detected.”

When asked by a Times reporter about the test on Thursday, Ortiz said, “I’m not talking about that anymore. I have no comment.”

The test results from 2003 were supposed to remain anonymous, according to an agreement between MLB and the players’ union. Earlier in the year, Alex Rodriguez admitted he had tested positive after a report in Sports Illustrated made the claim.

Ramirez, the World Series MVP for the Red Sox in 2004, was suspended for 50 games earlier this season for testing positive for hCG, a female fertility drug used to mask the presence of steroids in drug tests.

Ortiz, the MVP of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees, has spoken out against steroid users as recently as this past March.

“I would suggest everybody get tested, not random, everybody,” he told The Associated Press. “You go team by team. You test everybody three, four times a year, and that’s about it.”

His suggestion for those who test positive was simple: “Ban ’em for the whole year,” he said.

Ortiz has also said in the past that he and other Dominican players could have unknowingly taken performance-enhancing drugs in food products such as protein shakes purchased in the Dominican Republic.

After his suspension in May, Ramirez said in a statement, “I do want to say one other thing. I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons.”

That five-year period dates back to 2004, a year after the reported failed test.