Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Ervin Santana will finally make his season debut on Sunday, July 5th, after serving an 80-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs.
Santana was caught three days before Opening Day, testing postive to the steroid stanozolol. His suspension was tied for the fifth longest ever handed out to an MLB player and tied for the second longest ever handed out to an MLB pitcher, behind San Francisco Giants hurler Guillermo Mota, who received 100 games in 2012.
Santana has barely pitched this year, though he started three games for Triple-A Rochester, accumulating a 1.74 ERA in those starts. He's expected to pitch against the American League Central leading Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Santana is in the first year of a four-year contract with the Minnesota Twins. The Twins are Santana's fourth team in as many years. After spending most of his 10-year career with the Los Angeles Angels, Santana left after 2012. He spent a year apiece with the Royals and the Atlanta Braves before signing a multi-year contract with the Twins.
Santana entered the year looking like a top of the rotation pitcher for the Twins, and now that he's back he will now be expected to boost the Twins, who nobody expected to be contending at this point in the season. However, the Twins got off to a red-hot start, leading the division into June. However, they have faltered, winning just 12 of their last 30 games. Santana, who has won 10+ games six times in his career will be expected to lift them back into the division race. They are currently 4.5 games out, and tied for the Wild Card spot with the Los Angeles Angels and the Baltimore Orioles.
To make room for Santana, the Twins optioned top pitching prospect Alex Meyers back to Rochester after he made two relief appearances for them this past week.