3 more minor leaguers suspended for positive drug tests

NEW YORK -- Seattle's Bernie Martinez was suspended for 80 games and the Mariners' Luis Baez and San Francisco's Sonny Vargas were banned for 60 games each Friday following positive tests for performance-enhancing substances under the minor league drug program.

All three are pitchers.

Martinez, with high-A Everett, tested positive for LGD-4033, a selective androgen receptor modulator, the commissioner's office said.

Baez and Vargas, both assigned to the rookie-level Arizona Complex League, tested positive for stanozolol, a synthetic steroid derived from testosterone.

Seventeen players have been suspended this year under the minor league drug program.

Players with major league contracts have not been tested since Dec. 1 while Major League Baseball and the players' association negotiate following the expiration of the labor contract and Joint Drug Program.