Former Phillies outfielder Max Kepler opens up about PED suspension: ‘I take full responsibility’

PHOENIX – Days after the Phillies were eliminated from the playoffs by the Dodgers in the National League Division Series, Max Kepler got a phone call. Fresh off of a sudden end to his team’s World Series hopes, he was about to be dealt a career-altering blow: an 80-game performance-enhancing-drug suspension. 

Kepler tested positive for epitrenbolone, a metabolite of the popular and potentially lethal body-building steroid known as trenbolone or tren. His status as a free agent after the 2025 season made the whole situation even more complicated. 

The initial call, Kepler said, was confusing. 

“It took me, I think, at least a couple weeks to fully digest that I was guilty for something that I still don’t fully have answers for,” Kepler said. 

In a conversation with Phillies Nation, the former Phillies outfielder denied ever knowingly taking a banned substance, but took responsibility for the positive test. 

“It’s in my system,” Kepler said on Tuesday in the home dugout at Chase Field. “It was in my urine test, or at least the urine test that they had on file. So I take responsibility for it. And I’ve found closure, or at least I tell myself I’ve found closure with that.” 

In the three months between when he learned of the positive test and the announcement of the 80-game suspension on Jan. 9, a team of lawyers from the Major League Baseball Players Association investigated his case, Kepler said. 

“Having to sit in this holding pattern for months, which was kind of tough, not knowing if I’m going to play or not,” Kepler said. “I kind of wish it would have just been, you know, call, you’re suspended, for me to know just right off the bat. To sit and wait until right before spring training was a tough time.”

One idea his team looked into was the possibility of Kepler consuming contaminated red meat. 

“Our theory, which we were trying to put together with my lawyers, was the fact that you can consume a steroid with contaminated red meat, which I was eating a lot of red meat at the time,” Kepler said. “Then again, even if you would have sourced the contaminated red meat, there’s no chance that a company admits to contaminating their meat. So this theory was a theory, but it wouldn’t really hold up. So a positive test is a positive test.” 

As the investigation dragged on, Kepler said, teams called to express interest in signing him. The process is supposed to remain strictly confidential between the player, his representatives and the union. Front offices were operating business as usual. He could have technically signed with a team knowing that he would likely miss nearly half of the season. 

“I had to act like I wasn’t interested,” Kepler said. 

As all of this was happening, Kepler contemplated multiple paths forward. Someone suggested retiring and negotiating with the league to not disclose the positive test. Then again, Kepler heard that wasn’t a viable plan because players in the past have circumvented having their positive test announced by retiring and coming back after the suspension was up. 

But he did seriously contemplate walking away from baseball at age 33. 

“I shed tears,” Kepler said. “I was emotional because I thought in that span from October to January that I was done. That’s what they made it seem like.”

Kepler’s formal appeal was scheduled to begin in mid-January with a virtual court hearing and a follow-up in February. MLB, however, came to Kepler with a deal, he said. The outfielder would be allowed to serve his suspension beginning on the first day of the Phillies’ season if he was not signed to a major league team in exchange for dropping his appeal. 

Kepler took the deal. The league announced his 80-game PED suspension late Friday afternoon on Jan. 9. His camp did not release a statement at the time. 

“I know I didn’t knowingly consume anything,” Kepler said. 

The Major League Baseball Players Association declined to comment on this story. MLB, citing the confidentiality provisions in the Joint Drug Agreement, declined comment beyond the initial press release from January. 

For any major league player, a PED suspension comes with public ridicule. Some laughed at him for batting .216 with 18 home runs in a year he tested positive.

“If you really want to go into what happened, the substance that I took is trenbolon,” Kepler said. “Trenbolon, if you do your research on it, it’s to bulk up. It’s what meatheads take in the gym and it has no benefits to baseball. Baseball, you want to, I think, take a steroid that makes you feel 100% every day. And also being a free agent, why would I jeopardize my career, knowing that if I get popped, I’ll never even be able to start my suspension clock?”

Others speculated that he may have begun his PED use in the second half of last season with the Phillies, when he had an .827 OPS from Aug. 5 through the end of the season. 

“What I did during the season, I don’t really tie it to what critics ever say,” Kepler said. “What critics ever say, whether it has to do with a suspension or not, I just try and give it my best. I happened to start to play better and see the ball better later in the year. I’ve had years like that before. But I’ve also had years where I saw the ball great early on and slumped throughout the later months. 

“But I frankly don’t care what critics outside the game have to say. Now, if somebody has something to say within my clubhouse and within the player’s body, I’ll hear them out. But anything outside that, I don’t care.” 

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Kepler, prior to signing a one-year, $10 million deal with the Phillies in December 2024, spent 10 seasons with the Minnesota Twins. The German-born outfielder signed with Minnesota as an international free agent in 2009 at age 16. 

He entered the league more than a decade ago as a top prospect with a fascinating back story as the son of an American mother and Polish father who met in Berlin as professional ballet dancers. 

He defied the odds and carved out a lengthy MLB career, but the suspension will forever be part of his story. 

When asked if that bothers him, he paused for a moment.

“I don’t care,” Kepler said. “Not to come off as careless. The fans make the sport and everything. Me, speaking from my heart, I don’t know how it got in my system, so I can’t even go as far into giving into an accusation on the fans’ standpoint on the stance when in my eyes, I’m not even guilty, but I am responsible.

“There’s a fine line between, you know, not being guilty, but being responsible for what happens. Like, I take full responsibility. But when it comes to the stance of a fan and random people, I can’t say that I care or I can’t give that energy because I don’t know them, you know. And if I were to give everyone energy, then I would be exhausted.” 

To escape the noise both in his personal circle and inside the baseball world, he fled to Brazil for three months. There, Kepler said, he met “the love of his life” and “found a home.” 

“With some doors closing, luckily temporarily in this situation, others open,” Kepler said. “You’ve got to kind of look past the adversity sometimes and move on with your life.” 

He eventually came back to the U.S. and trained on his own in Florida. His current team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, showed interest in signing him early on. Three teams were serious suitors, Kepler said. 

At the time, the D-Backs front office was not satisfied with the team’s production against right-handed pitching. In need of a left-handed bat, the D-Backs signed Kepler on June 7 for the prorated league minimum of $780,000 with roster bonuses. 

Kepler returned to the major leagues as soon as his suspension was up on June 25. 

As a platoon bat in left field, Kepler has struggled since his return. He looked like a player that missed months of reps in his first few games back, but posted a .734 OPS in his first full month in July. 

The D-Backs at the trade deadline essentially acquired his replacement in left-handed hitting outfielder Lars Nootbar, who now gets most of the left field and some DH reps against righties. With Nolan Arenado playing through injury, star catcher Gabriel Moreno needing DH days to stay in the lineup and Ketel Marte ramping up for his return back to second base, there aren’t many DH reps to go around on the D-Backs roster. 

Combine that with the emergence of two young outfielders, Ryan Waldschmidt and Jordan Lawlar, and his overall struggles at the plate, playing time has been very hard to come by for Kepler. 

He started only 13 games in August. He has survived multiple roster crunches. His time in Arizona, whether it ends within the next week or when the regular season ends on Sept. 27, has an expiration date. The terms of his suspension bar him from playing in this year’s postseason. 

“It’s all very confusing and I’m just grateful now to still be able to play baseball and be here in a big league stadium on a big league team because I really thought my career was over,” Kepler said. 

He spent the entire series against his former team on the bench. He caught up with Edmundo Sosa and Jesús Luzardo prior to the opener on Monday. He said he misses his former Phillies teammates.

“I obviously wish I had done more for the team, performance wise,” Kepler said about his year with the Phillies. “I wish I had more years to give them more of my capability and performance. But I don’t live with regrets. What happened last year will stick with me forever as a positive memory.” 

Before he was hit with the suspension, Kepler had three individual goals for the 2026 season, two of which he ended up achieving: Reaching 10 years of MLB service time, getting to 1,000 hits and hitting 200 home runs (he’s 19 shy). 

“To me, this year was, you know, the ultimate year,” Kepler said. “Whatever happens after, I’d be happy with. To me, this was like that big year, and then shit happens.”