Chris Colabello to work with Frank Mir to fight PED suspension?

TORONTO – Chris Colabello became the latest baseball player suspended for PED use when MLB announced an 80-game ban for the Toronto Blue Jays first baseman on Friday.

Colabello didn’t speak to reporters but he did issue a statement through the MLBPA, acknowledging he had been informed of an incoming suspension on Mar. 13 and maintaining he has no knowledge as to how the anabolic steroid dehydrochlormethyltestosterone entered his system.

[Related: Blue Jays’ Chris Colabello suspended 80 games for PED use]

It looks like Colabello’s not alone in his fight to clear his name, either. UFC fighter Frank Mir tested positive for the same steroid earlier in April and faces a two-year ban from the sport. Like Colabello, Mir claimed to be shocked by the test results and the two are now unlikely allies, according to Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar.

“This is a guy that got caught up in a flawed system,” said Pillar “He fell victim to a technicality in the system. And I think that the drug testing policy and Major League Baseball are going to have some soul searching to do and they’re going to have to figure something out.

“Knowing Chris, and being in contact with some of the people who recently have been suspended, including the UFC fighter Frank Mir,” said Pillar. “I know collectively they’re going to work together and get to the bottom of this and hopefully a lot of good will come out of this.”

It’s easy to dismiss an athlete’s cries of innocence following a positive drug test. Time and time again the truth eventually comes out and it very rarely comes back in the athlete’s favor. The louder the defense, the more skeptical the public is of that athlete’s honesty, especially in this case with this specific steroid:

What’s interesting re Colabello is dehydrochlormethyltestosterone is a decades-old, no-nonsense anabolic. Athletes know what it is. (1/2)

— Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) April 22, 2016

To knowingly use it in the lead up to—or during—spring training, when players know they’ll be tested, would be incredibly brazen. (2/2)

— Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) April 22, 2016

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Two athletes from very different sports have become teammates in a way as they find themselves in very similar situations. History tells us the odds are against them, but Colabello and Mir appear prepared to go down swinging.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr