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Phillies say they will welcome Stumpf back after drug suspension

DENVER - The visiting clubhouse doors will open on Sunday morning, and the Phillies will mark a first in team history when they welcome a player back to the team during the same season in which he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

DENVER - The visiting clubhouse doors will open on Sunday morning, and the Phillies will mark a first in team history when they welcome a player back to the team during the same season in which he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

Daniel Stumpf, a rookie reliever, is set to rejoin the Phillies at the conclusion of his 80-game suspension for using dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, an anabolic steroid that was created in the 1960s for East German Olympians. Stumpf is the fifth Phillies player to be suspended by Major League Baseball, which began drug testing in 2004.

It will be interesting to gauge the reception in the clubhouse when the doors open and a player loses his job because Stumpf has returned.

"I don't think the players are going to be standoffish to him," manager Pete Mackanin said. "He said he didn't know he was taking anything, so you have to give him the benefit of the doubt. It's not like he knew he was cheating on purpose. And it's not like we lose one of our best players in the middle of a playoff run in August or September. Then you have a right to be mad at the guy. But I don't see any issues there. Maybe I'm wrong."

Freddy Galvis was suspended in 2012 during his rookie season. He missed the rest of the season after testing positive for Clostebol, a steroid that was also used by East Germans. J.C. Romero (androstenedione) and Carlos Ruiz (Adderall) both returned to the Phillies in the same season in which they were suspended, but their positive tests occurred a season earlier. Antonio Bastardo missed the remainder of the 2013 season after being suspended for connections to the Biogenesis scandal.

Galvis, now a clubhouse leader, said Stumpf will be welcomed back "100 percent." The pitcher will be just a "regular player," Galvis said. Galvis, too, denied to knowingly take steroids. He referenced dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, which is also called Oral Turinabol, and its repeated occurrences this season.

Toronto's Chris Colabello was suspended for it a week after Stumpf. Phillies minor leaguer Alec Asher tested positive for it in June. Seattle prospect Boog Powell was suspended in June, and Cody Stanley, a minor-league free agent, was suspended for it on Friday.

None of the players said they knowingly took dehydrochlormethyltestosterone. They did not know how it got into their system.

"When you know you didn't do anything, and they find you guilty, that's bad stuff," Galvis said. "They can mess up your life and mess up everything. Something is missing, and they have to find what is missing. They have a lot of guys paying, and they didn't do anything. I think that's bad."

Stumpf, who the Phillies acquired last December from Kansas City in the Rule 5 draft, would likely be in the minor leagues if the Phillies were not afraid that the Royals would claim him back. The lefthander pitched in just three games before being suspended. The 25-year-old never pitched about double A until this season and seems to be a fringe major leaguer.

He has spent the last two weeks in the minor-leagues on a rehab assignment so he can be ready to pitch once he walks through those clubhouse doors. Perhaps he is a bit nervous to learn of his reception. Galvis, who returned to a team in 2013 that featured a heavier veteran presence, said he was not concerned about how he would be received when he returned.

"Deep in myself, I know that I didn't do anything," Galvis said. "If my family and friends knew, then I was OK. I didn't really care what other people think about me. I think that's the same way that he has to approach it. We believe him. He said, 'I didn't do anything.' I believe him."

mbreen@phillynews.com

@matt_breen www.philly.com/philliesblog