Why would Mejia be so irresponsible? A major leaguer at 20, banned for life at 26

Jenrry Mejia is 26 years old. With any kind of luck at all, that leaves him with a lot of life left, and with any kind of prudence would have meant a lot of baseball career left.
He grew up in Santo Domingo, where he shined shoes for a few pesos at a time. According to the stories, written as Mejia and his big fastball were arriving in the big leagues five years ago, he only discovered baseball at 15, only found he was reasonably good at it sometime afonly then began to understand what it could do for the rest of his life.ter that, and

He was in the major leagues with the New York Mets at 20. He was established in their bullpen at 24. He was suspended twice after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs at 25. And on Friday afternoon, at 26 years old, Jenrry Mejia became the first player – major or minor leagues – to be banned for life because of a third positive test.

In a span of 10 months, Mejia tested for Stanozolol, was suspended for 80 games, then tested for Stanozolol and Boldenone, was suspended for 162 games, and then tested for Boldenone and therefore was permanently disqualified.

A year ago, he was to be the Mets closer for as long as that fastball held up. He would have made $2.5 million in 2015. He could have made about $1 million in 2016, had he only shown up in late July – when his suspension was due to expire – and pitched.

Mejia perhaps will go pitch somewhere else, in a country or a league that isn't done with him. He can apply for reinstatement here in two years, though the likelihood of a soft landing on appeal seems rather thin.

So what kind of a young man is busted for steroids, twice, and while serving each of those suspensions is busted again for using the same drugs? Mejia, as of Friday, was six months from pitching in a big-league game. Why take illegal drugs now? Or, maybe, why do those drugs linger in him still?

Maybe he is that foolish, that shortsighted, that reckless, that wasteful. Maybe he is that insecure. That fragile.

Maybe he believed the whole thing – the fastball, the big-league life, the big-league paycheck and a reasonable future – was not in his arm at all, but in those bottles. The risk of being caught then wasn't a risk at all, but his only way to stay off that shoeshine box.

The Mets, through a statement, would only say they were "deeply disappointed" to learn of Mejia's violation. Now they'll move on, as will the game, as will Mejia.

While the simplest (and quite legitimate) reaction is to wonder how a grown man could make such a dumb decision – three times – you may also ask why he would choose to kill his own career. That's nobody else's problem today, of course. Just his. And he'll have an awfully long time to think it through.