Kernels' newcomer knows drug policy

CEDAR RAPIDS - With performance-enhancing drugs and Major League Baseball once again married in the headlines, a member of the Cedar Rapids Kernels spoke out last night about his own experience with the MLB drug policy.

Kernels' catcher Michael Quesada, a 24th-round selection in 2010 out of Sierra (Calif.) Junior College, served a 50-game suspension without pay for testing positive last August for Methylhexaneamine, a stimulant previously marketed as a nasal decongestant or dietary supplement.

“It was a nasal decongestant medicine that, if I went to the trainer and told them about it, they would have set it straight when the test came around,” Quesada said before a 9-5 loss to Quad Cities at Veterans Memorial Stadium. “But I didn't do my part, so I paid the price for it.”

Quesada has hit .244 with a homer and four RBIs in 13 games for Cedar Rapids. Since the positive test occurred at rookie-level Elizabethon, Quesada initially believed the 2013 portion of the suspension could not be served until the start of rookie ball June 22.

That's when he received a surprise from Minnesota Twins farm director Brad Steil.

“The Twins did an appeal on their own without telling me to Major League Baseball, and it got passed,” Quesada said. “I didn't ask any questions, I just said ‘OK'. And that's just the organization - first-class; that's how they treat their players.”

MLB ruled that the remaining games of the suspension could be served beginning with the Kernels' April schedule, and Quesada was activated May 13.

Quesada looked on as 2012 No. 1 draft pick Carlos Correa of the Quad Cities had three hits and five RBIs, including a towering first-inning home run onto Eighth Avenue.

Dalton Hicks homered twice for the Kernels.

The rubber match of the series is tonight at 6:30.