Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia suspended 162 games for performance-enhancing drugs

New York Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia has been suspended for performance-enhancing drugs for the second time this season, according to CBS Sports' Jon Heyman:

Jenrry mejia gets 162 game drug ban. Failed another test.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) July 28, 2015

A second positive drug test means that Mejia is suspended for a full season, 162 games, after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drugs Stanozolol and Boldenone. This comes after he received an 80 game suspension on April 11 for a positive drug test.

Between the two suspensions, Mejia pitched seven games for the Mets this season and did not allow a run on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in 7⅓ innings. Naturally he saw much more action in 2014, a season in which he had a 3.65 ERA and 1.48 WHIP in 93⅔ innings and 63 appearances, including seven starts. He walked 41 and struck out 98.

The Mets expected Mejia to be a key part of their bullpen this season, but with the two suspensions he has failed to live up to that and his career as a Met may be over if they decline to offer him arbitration in the offseason.

Mejia's suspension makes the Mets' acquisition of reliever Tyler Clippard from the Mets that much more crucial, as he can now fill the role at the back end of the bullpen, along  with Bobby Parnell and closer Jeurys Familia, that Mejia was slotted for down the stretch.

Without Mejia, the Mets could re-enter the relief pitching market now and go after perhaps Milwaukee's Francisco Rodriguez or Colorado's John Axford.

Whether or not it forces his team into action in the trade market, a second suspension for performance-enhancing drugs in the span of a few months was not the best thing that could have happened to Mejia.