But his production didn't drop until the thumb. Presumably he hasn't used anything close to illegal since the end of 2011. 2012 was his best season, without Fielder behind him. 2013 he was doing the same thing until the injury. The correlation would line up with the thumb, not when he likely quit using PEDs. Also, many people would argue defensive shifts are the biggest reason for the offensive decline than the PEDs. Plenty of the guys that have been suspended continued to hit just fine after they came back. I haven't read a ton about the thumb thing but my understanding is that simple break would be much better than this nerve problem. I think they only saw it one other player before (for some reason I want to say Victorino?) and had no idea how to treat it in the offseason of his suspension leading into 2014 season, which ruined him last year. then this year they tried the surgery and you can tell it's helped. he at least keeps his top hand on the bat this year, while he couldn't last year. Hindsight they should have tried this surgery right after the suspension, but I'm remembering something about this procedure not having been created at that point yet?