USA Today Sports
Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that every pitcher caught using or possessing foreign substances will be given an automatic 10-game suspension beginning Monday, June 21, and team employees can also be suspended or fined for substances found in their clubhouse or dugout.
Starting pitchers will be checked more than once per game for foreign substances while relievers will be checked at least once.
“After an extensive process of repeated warnings without effect, gathering information from current and former players and others across the sport, two months of comprehensive data collection, listening to our fans and thoughtful deliberation,’’ Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement, “I have determined that new enforcement of foreign substances is needed to level the playing field.