Severino returns after 80-game PED suspension

PITTSBURGH -- Saying, “We made a mistake and I’m paying for it,” catcher Pedro Severino returned to active duty Sunday in the wake of an 80-game PED suspension and vowed to do everything possible to help send the Brewers into the postseason.

“People are going to say and think whatever they want to say, and I can’t control that,” Severino said via translator Carlos Brizuela. “Only God and I know what really happened. I’ll be honest with my teammates, with everyone close to me. They’ll know the truth coming from me.

“You can’t really control what other people are thinking or saying. I never thought about it that way. I haven’t really looked at comments or anything like that. I just try to get my work done and move on from it, and try to be the best player I can from here on out.”

Severino will have a maximum of 82 games to be that player, since he is ineligible for postseason play should Milwaukee make it that far. The team scrambled to trade for another catcher, Victor Caratini, after learning of the positive test from Severino, and Caratini and Omar Narváez have combined to make Brewers catchers the fourth-most valuable unit in the Majors by fWAR (2.8) and fifth by wRC+ (113).

So Severino will have to be patient about playing time. He’ll do some catching or serve as the designated hitter when the Brewers face left-handed starters, manager Craig Counsell said, but may also see time at first base. Severino has no history there, but manned first during a Minor League rehabilitation assignment as the end of his suspension neared.

“We’re going to have to be creative a little bit,” manager Craig Counsell said.

Said Severino: “It’s definitely hard, definitely a challenge coming into the team halfway through the season. The team is made already, we’re halfway, but I have to find ways to help the team wherever they need me. If they want me to play first, that’s something we’ve been doing lately. Or catching. Whatever they give me the chance, I have to try to support the team, because at the end the team and the organization has one goal.”

Will he have to fight the urge to make up for lost time?

“You can’t really do anything about time lost. Time lost is time lost that you can’t recover,” Severino said. “You just have to start from today and move on from now on and help the team win, and show what type of player you are and show that I can still do what I’m capable of.”

The Brewers signed Severino to a one-year deal, and were very encouraged about his prospects as a right-handed backup to the left-handed-hitting Narváez after Severino went 10-for-23 with three doubles and two home runs in his eight Spring Training games.

Plans abruptly changed after the positive test for Clomiphene, a banned substance under the league’s PED prevention program that is common in female fertility medications and is characterized as performance-enhancing by MLB because it can alter testosterone levels in men.

Severino addressed his teammates at the time and gave them the same explanation he issued in a statement when his suspension was announced, that he and his wife had been trying to get pregnant for two years without any success.

“So, after the season in 2021 when we went back to the Dominican, we started seeing doctors trying to figure out what was going on, and it came back that it was me that was having the problem,” Severino said. “So, the doctor prescribed me some medicine and I trusted her, and unfortunately that’s what I tested positive for. It was something that was a family matter, and unfortunately it trickled into the baseball world.”

Severino spent his suspension at the Brewers’ complex in Arizona, with occasional visits from teammates Luis Urías and Jandel Gustave. He remained in daily communication, Severino said, with Walker McKinven, the Brewers’ strategy coach and catching guru.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this far away from the game in my 12-year career,” Severino said. “It’s been my life, really, so it feels like my dream is happening again. Back to the big leagues is the feeling I’m feeling today.”