Former Cardinals pitcher continues swiping at players throughout baseball

Miles Mikolas has made a name for himself throughout his career for his eccentricities. He joined the St. Louis Cardinals in 2018 already brandishing the nickname "The Lizard King" after he ingested a lizard during an Arizona Fall League game in 2011, and throughout his stint in the Gateway City, he was unafraid to speak his mind. Now with the Washington Nationals, Mikolas continues to express his opinions unabashedly, and he recently took aim at players who use performance-enhancing drugs.

Mikolas expressed some unfiltered resentment toward PED users in baseball.

In a video provided by MLBFITS on X, Mikolas spoke with a reporter who asked what Mikolas would change about baseball if he were the commissioner for a day. Mikolas said he would crack down on players who used PEDs, potentially forcing them to wear a different color hat or a patch on their jerseys.

Although Mikolas may have gone a bit too far in stating his method to single out PED users, he does have reason to be upset about hitters who "juice up." Although the sport appears to have mostly recovered from the black eye of the steroid era in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Commissioner Rob Manfred still hasn't stamped the problem out entirely.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar was recently suspended for the entire 2026 season for testing positive for a banned substance, and Mikolas didn't pull any punches when providing his opinion on that either. Mikolas said prior to Profar's appeal of the suspension that the disgraced outfielder has "plenty of money and time to defend himself without the need of the Players Association."

Some Cardinals fans may have found this behavior endearing for a while, but when he began to struggle following his two-year contract extension in 2023, his words and actions started to grate on people. After a game in April 2025 where he allowed nine runs on 11 hits, Mikolas downplayed his abysmal performance, which didn't sit well with the Cardinals faithful. This criticism popped up again in July after he surrendered a leadoff triple and two home runs, placing the Cardinals in an early 4-0 hole, and thought he delivered "just two bad pitches." Already on thin ice, Mikolas didn't do himself any favors a month later when he threw a thinly disguised verbal punch at sacrosanct former Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright.

Mikolas' fall from grace in St. Louis was swift, and his comments near the end of his tenure only fanned the flames. Although he can rightfully gripe about players who cheat, it's not a great look for a struggling pitcher to deflect the blame elsewhere. Some Cardinals fans may still miss his unsolicited takes and his goofy "Lizard King" antics, but nobody will be longing for his return to the Busch Stadium mound — unless it's as a visitor.