St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday has been an outspoken critic of performance enhancing drug users in the past, but the slugger said he is also a forgiving person and he thinks that newly acquired shortstop Jhonny Peralta served his punishment and learned his lesson.
Peralta was suspended last summer for 50 games due to his connection to the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic accused of distributing performance enhancing drugs to up to at least 14 players, but he served his time without arguing. The Cardinals came under some fire in November when they signed the free agent shortstop--who served his suspension then finished up the final year of his contract with the Detroit Tigers--to a four-year $54 million contract which some saw as rewarding a cheater.
Holliday, however, is not one of those critics.
"I am against PEDs and always will be," Holliday said Monday at the Cardinals' winter fan festival, according to ESPN. "But I also am a forgiving person, and he served his suspension. That's the rules of the game. I'm happy to have him as a teammate."
Peralta hit .303 with 30 doubles, 11 home runs and 55 RBIs in 107 games with the Tigers in 2013 and was brought in by the Cardinals as an offensive upgrade at shortstop over Pete Kozma. ESPN reports that general manager John Mozeliak said he discussed the signing of Peralta with Holliday before he signed him. Holliday wasn't inclined to share the conversation.
"Mo just called and said this is what we're going to do," he said via ESPN. "It's not like he asked me if it was OK."
Holliday told ESPN that he texted Peralta to welcome him to the team.
"He took the suspension, served it," Holliday said, according to ESPN. "His teammates in Detroit welcomed him back. I don't think it's necessarily something he has to address. If he wants to, that's his prerogative. But I don't think, as teammates, it's anything we expect."
Peralta knows he has plenty to prove to his new teammates about his change of style from being a known PED user, and he hopes to put it behind him.
I'm trying to put it in the past," Peralta told ESPN. "I'm trying to look forward and forget about it. I know I can play baseball naturally. I have to show people that I can do it and that I can help. I'm going to try to do the best I can do and try to help the Cardinals go to the World Series one more time and win."
Holliday said that he believes that his anger at PED use stems from clean players having an uneven playing field.
"The guys that aren't using are against it," Holliday said, according to ESPN. "We want a level playing field. Everybody wants a level playing field that's not using it."
The Cardinals are on the same page now that Peralta is on board and the team will look to get back to the World Series where it ultimately lost in six games to the Boston Red Sox in 2013.
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