Reds’ Arroyo: ‘Wouldn’t be surprised’ to see name on 2003 list of positive drug tests

Arroyo: ‘Wouldn’t be surprised’ to be on drug list

CINCINNATI — Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo admits he took amphetamines. Whether that put him on the 2003 list of players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, he says he’s not sure.

“What I said was anybody could be on the list,” Arroyo said before Cincinnati played Colorado on Friday night. “I said I wouldn’t be surprised if I was.”

Arroyo, who played for the Boston Red Sox from 2003-05, was quoted in Friday’s Boston Herald as saying he took androstenedione and amphetamines, which could have produced positive tests.

Any player who tested positive was supposed to be informed by the players’ union, and Arroyo said he was never notified.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were among the 104 players whose names were on the list. Arroyo played with them in Boston.

“Before (2004), none of us paid attention to what we took,” said Arroyo, who said he started to take androstenedione in 1998, when he was in Pittsburgh’s farm system. “That’s why I said anybody could be on the list. Back then, nobody knew what was in the stuff, because the (Federal Drug Administration) wasn’t regulating all of it.”

Androstenedione was banned in 2004 and amphetamines in 2006. Arroyo didn’t see any measurable boost on the field from what he was taking, but he believed they still helped.

“I’d take anything I can get from (a nutrition store) if you tell me it would make me better on the field,” said Arroyo, acquired by the Reds in spring training of 2006. “Of course I took an (amphetamine) on a day game — a 12:35 game pitching against Johan Santana.”

The 32-year-old Arroyo said he now limits his intake to legal supplements such as protein, vitamins, ginseng and a caffeine drink he says he learned about from former teammate Curt Schilling.

“There’s plenty of things that guys would like to take that we’re not allowed to any more,” he said. “Honestly, I would love to not take any of the supplements I take. I’d love to wake up in the morning and have some fruit and a bowl of cereal and have a good lunch, and maybe take a multivitamin for the day, but the reality is, I’m probably not going to be as good a major league pitcher if I do.”