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Chris Colabello, the Toronto Blue Jays first baseman, whose rise from the independent leagues to the major leagues was an endearing story of perseverance, was suspended for 80 games without pay Friday after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.
Colabello, 32, tested positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, a steroid banned by Major League Baseball that had gained notoriety during the East German doping scandals. It is the same drug that the Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Daniel Stumpf tested positive for earlier this month.
In a statement, Colabello said he was informed on March 13 by M.L.B. that he had tested positive. Players who test positive for performance-enhancing drugs can request tests on a second sample and also appeal to an arbitrator.
“I have spent every waking hour since that day trying to find an answer as to why or how?” Colabello said in the statement. “The only thing I know is that I would never compromise the integrity of the game of baseball. I love this game too much!”
Colabello, who did not speak with reporters in Toronto, where the Blue Jays lost to the Athletics, 8-5, on Friday night, is one of the team’s more popular players — fluent in Spanish, he mixed easily with the Latin players as well as the team’s star Josh Donaldson, with whom they share the same private hitting coach.
Colabello, who was called up from the minor leagues last May, hit .321 with 15 home runs and 54 R.B.I. to help the Blue Jays reach the playoffs for the first time in 22 years.
It was an especially gratifying season for Colabello, who graduated magna cum laude from Assumption College near his home in Milford, Mass., and spent seven years playing in independent leagues, which are not affiliated with any of the 30 major league clubs. At age 28, he finally landed a spot in the Minnesota Twins’ minor league system and two years later made his major league debut.
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