Guillermo Mota appeals 100-game suspension, blames positive test on children’s cough medicine

Yesterday afternoon MLB suspended Guillermo Mota for 100 games following a positive test for the performance-enhancing drug Clenbuterol, but the Giants reliever is appealing the suspension while blaming the positive result on children’s cough medicine.

Mota’s agent, Adam Katz, issued the following statement:

Players are responsible for what they put in their bodies. Guillermo understands that. A 100-game suspension for taking a children’s cough medicine that contains trace amounts of a prohibited substance, which is what happened here, is severe and unfair and does not reflect the intention of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. We will appeal it.

Not mentioned in the above statement is that Mota is a second-time offender who was suspended for 50 games after a positive PED test in 2006. And as Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com notes, “multiple offenders cannot delay their sentence while appealing it.”

In other words, he can go through the appeal process and have his case heard, but in the meantime he’ll be serving the suspension. And presumably not taking any more cough medicine intended for children.