Tokyo Yakult Swallows right-hander Daniel Rios has been suspended for one year for a drug test failure, Nippon Professional Baseball acting commissioner Yasuchika Negoro said Saturday.
Yakult, meanwhile, announced the release of the 35-year-old effective the same day shortly after Negoro revealed the ruling.
NPB said a test conducted after a May 21 game showed traces of hydroxystanozolol, a metabolite of the anabolic steroid stanozolol, and the second urine sample taken from Rios found the same banned substance.
"It is quite appropriate to impose a one-year suspension in this case," Kazuo Hasegawa, secretary general at the commissioner's office, said after the ruling was made by the NPB anti-doping special committee held earlier Saturday.
"The substance detected this time carries heavy weight in our anti-doping policy and it is one of the substances that must be most strictly prohibited," he said.
A Yakult front-office official quoted Rios as denying he has taken anything on the list of banned substances.