Hosmer: Players caught using PEDs should lose guaranteed money

Former MLB first baseman Eric Hosmer believes punishments for players who violate baseball's performance-enhancing drug policy should be harsher.

Hosmer said players would be deterred from using PEDs if they lost all money still owed to them and not just served a suspension without pay.

"I think the only way this game gets cleaned up and these guys don't risk 80-game suspensions for another couple years on the back end is to take away guaranteed money," Hosmer said on the "Diggin' Deep" podcast while discussing Atlanta Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar. "I don't care if you sign for guaranteed money. Whatever the rest of the contract is from this point on, you have to take it away because it's been proven that guys that sign long-term deals ... that doesn't stop them from taking this risk.

"If you tell me I have a $110 million on the line for these next three years and I could possibly lose that, I'm not even thinking that."

Profar was suspended for 80 games at the end of March after testing positive for Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG). The 2024 All-Star will lose $5.8 million while he's not playing but signed a three-year, $42-million contract in the offseason following a breakout age-31 campaign.