The Orioles hope first baseman Chris Davis can bounce back from a nightmarish 2014 campaign that ended with him being suspended 25 games for testing positive for Adderall.
It now appears that he’s been approved to use the drug for the 2015 season. Manager Buck Showalter told reporters Tuesday that Davis recently told him that he received a therapeutic use exemption from Major League Baseball to use the drug commonly prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Davis reportedly had an exemption to use the drug when he was a member of the Texas Rangers, but it’s believed that growing concern over the high use of Adderall has led to baseball creating a more stringent process for issuing approval in recent years. Roughly 10 percent of players on 40-man rosters in the major leagues presented notes from doctors for Adderall use last year.
Even if the newly-secured exemption may bring some closure to the disappointment of last season, trying to determine how much Adderall might impact Davis’ performance is difficult. He allegedly didn’t have an exemption to use it in 2013 when he hit a franchise-record 53 home runs. In contrast, he tested positive for the second time in his career — the first failed test reportedly came when he was still a member of the Rangers and didn’t carry a suspension — in the midst of a season in which he hit .196 and saw his long-ball total fall to 26.
The 28-year-old still has one game remaining on his 25-game suspension that began on Sept. 12 and made him ineligible for the Orioles’ 2014 postseason run.
Entering his final season before hitting free agency, Davis will look to prove he’s more like the player who was the major league home run king in 2013 and not the player who struggled throughout 2014 and saw his season end in disgrace. The Orioles would gladly take a compromise resembling his first full season with the Orioles in 2012 when he hit .270 with 33 homers, 85 runs batted in, and an .827 on-base plus slugging percentage.
Davis posting numbers in that neighborhood would go a long way in helping replace the void left behind by Nelson Cruz, who departed via free agency earlier this month to sign a four-year, $57 million contract with Seattle.
