Conine comes back with a clean slate
Prospect matured as a result of failed drug test and suspension in 2019
The day camp breaks at spring training — when players head to their major- or minor-league assignments, with the real games about to begin — is often one of the most exciting days of the year for a professional baseball player. But not for Griffin Conine, not last year.
More than four months earlier, the Blue Jays outfield prospect had been suspended for the first 50 games of 2019 for a violation of the minor-league drug program. That positive test for the banned stimulant ritalinic acid was traced to a Ritalin pill, Conine said in an interview last fall.
He had gone from a full college season at Duke University to being drafted 52nd overall to 57-minor league games, 55 with the short-season Vancouver Canadians. He was exhausted, he recalls, and when he was offered the pill as a way to give him some energy so he could go out and explore Vancouver during the final homestand of the year, he accepted.
“Taking it, I knew the implications of what could happen,” Conine says now. “I think I just thought that it would be out of my system quick enough. It’s one thing if it’s a recurring trend — obviously stuff’s going to stay in your system longer — but it was just a one-time thing. Just something that came back to bite me.”
Two or three days later, as the season came to a close, Conine was tested for drugs. Almost three months later, he learned of the suspension.
The call to his parents, his dad, former major-leaguer Jeff Conine, and mom Cindy, was tough but Conine took his father’s advice and owned up to the failed drug test. He posted a statement on Twitter conveying his “utmost embarrassment” for a “careless decision.”
Jeff Conine told his son that there was nothing worse than reading a statement where a player brushes off a failed drug test like it was a crazy misunderstanding or just random.
“It never is. You always know what you’re putting in your body, whether you write that in your statement or not,” Griffin Conine says. “If you’re (a fan) reading that or you’re in the organization reading that, that just kind of makes you feel like it’s something that could happen again.”
The Jays credited Conine for understanding the mistake he made. “We are confident that he has learned from this experience,” says Gil Kim, Toronto’s director of player development. “We will continue to support him in his development and work together to maximize his potential.”
Conine feels he has matured as a result of the failed test and suspension. He had been told not to put too much emphasis on his first half-season, not to put too much pressure on himself, and he says “I think I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have.”
He went into 2019 with a different mentality, wanting to be an impact player for the class-A Lansing Lugnuts, wanting to get his team to the playoffs, wanting to make a statement with his play.
But first there was the extended spring, a somewhat lonely experience for Conine, who was one of a handful or so English speaking-players who remained at the spring training complex in Dunedin, Fla., through April and May.
It wasn’t until he developed his own schedule, at Kim’s urging, that Conine started making the extra time in Florida work for him. He worked with Canadians hitting coach Aaron Matthews to shorten his swing, making it easier to get the barrel on the ball. He had hit just .238 in Vancouver, often hitting the ball off the end of the bat or getting jammed.
“I think it was something that I needed to do,” Conine says. “You don’t always get that time with coaches, one on one, like I did and that proved to be a huge help.”
Conine joined the Lugnuts on May 29 and went on to lead the Midwest League with 22 home runs and a .576 slugging percentage in 80 games. His 125 strikeouts were “egregiously high,” he says, but he still hit .283 in a pitcher’s league and he found the adjustments to his swing improved his exit velocity. He enters this spring as the Jays’ No. 15 prospect, according to mlb.com.
“He just has a great idea and understanding of what he’s doing when he gets in the box,” Lugnuts hitting coach Logan Bone told the team’s website last summer, “and whenever he doesn’t get the pitches that he was hunting in whichever count, it doesn’t bother him. Of course nobody likes to strike out but he understands that, if he continues to go out there and stick to his guns, then he’s going to get his more often than not.”
And, this year, when camp breaks, he’ll be getting his right from the start.
“It’s just a fresh season, (a) clean slate,” Conine says.