On Friday, Cincinnati Reds prospect Junior Harding, a right-handed pitcher, was suspended for 50 games. He tested positive for methylphenidate, which is basically adderall/ritalin. He’s the second Reds prospect to be suspended in 2019. Nate Scantlin was suspended for 50 games on January 18th for a second positive test of a drug of abuse.

The question at that time was asked to me if the Reds had more drug suspensions than other organizations do. I didn’t have the answer at the time, but I decided to look into it. I tracked down the data on suspensions over the last three years, starting in January of 2016. There was two different sets of data I felt was worth looking at: Players suspended, and total days of suspension.

The exact question that was asked are the Reds prospects suspended more often than other teams? The answer to that question is yes, they are. Or at least since the start of 2016, they have been. Only the Toronto Blue Jays have had more players suspended than the Reds have. The Red Sox and Yankees are tied with the Reds at 13 players suspended. The Blue Jays sit atop the board at 15. Here’s the chart on total players suspended since the start of 2016.

Now, it probably is worth nothing that the Yankees, Reds, and Blue Jays all had multiple suspensions at the DSL level within the same year that made up a decent chunk of their suspensions. The Blue Jays lost 7 players in 2017 at the level. The Reds in 2016 had 4 DSL Reds players get busted. And the Yankees had 6 get caught in 2016.

It’s one thing to have players suspended. But what about the length of suspensions? Depending on what you are caught for, the length of your suspension varies. It also depends on how many times you’ve been caught prior.

The two charts shouldn’t be that much different, and they aren’t. The Reds are still near the top in terms of total games missed due to suspension. And the Blue Jays are still on top of the list with an even 1000 games served.

The Cincinnati Reds haven’t been the worst offenders over the last few years, but they have been near the top. They were second in most players suspended, and fourth in total games faced via suspension. So the question was both good, and on point. The reader felt that he had seen the Reds guys pop up more frequently than other teams. They were right in that feelings.