David Ortiz: I’ve taken more drug tests than any player in baseball

David Ortiz is doubling down on his claim that no one in baseball history has been tested for PEDs more than he has.

David Ortiz is doubling down on his claim that no one in baseball history has been tested for PEDs more than he has.

After making the claim in a Players’ Tribune essay last year, he told Tom Verducci in this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated that he has taken more tests than anyone in the game, and that he has never tested positive.

“I never failed a test. I kept on banging,” Ortiz said. “So, you know, the reality is that it’s a noise that I think was more damaging [to some players’ careers] than anything else, because a lot of guys that were pronounced [as having tested] positive for things or having been caught using things, their careers went away. Yet I am [here].

“Let me tell you, there’s not one player in baseball, not one player, that has been drug-tested more than David Ortiz. I guarantee you that. I never failed a test.”

The lefty slugger made the claim after a list surfaced in 2009 of players who tested positive for PEDs in 2003 survey testing.

Ortiz, who is walking away from the game after 20 seasons, will appear on a regional cover of Sports Illustrated this week, his fourth time on the cover. Read Ortiz's full conversation with Verducci on Wednesday.