Former Mets slugger Mo Vaughn admits to using Human Growth Hormone

In a recent interview, first baseman Mo Vaughn admitted to using HGH while attempting to recover from an injury.

Jul 6, 1991; Boston, MA, USA; FILE PHOTO; Boston Red Sox infielder Mo Vaughn during batting practice prior to the game against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Imagn Images | RVR Photos-Imagn Images

Former New York Mets first baseman Mo Vaughn has admitted to using human growth hormone while on a Major League Baseball roster.

Vaughn, who played for the Mets in 2002 and 2003 prior to retiring, told The Athletic in an exclusive interview that he was attempting to rehabilitate "a bad, degenerative knee" using human growth hormone, a naturally-occurring substance released by the body's pituitary gland that both spurs growth in children and maintains normal body structure and metabolism in adults.

"I was trying to do everything I could," Vaughn said about his usage. "I was shooting HGH in my knee. Whatever I could do to help the process."

EXCLUSIVE: Mo Vaughn told The Athletic that he used human growth hormone in an effort to extend his career, confirming for the first time information disclosed in 2007 in the Mitchell Report.

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Per previously established reporting, these measures taken by Vaughn did not include using steroids. Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig commissioned a report from former United States Senator George Mitchell of Maine in 2007, later known as "The Mitchell Report". In the report, Mitchell named roughly 90 then-current and former players as being suspected of using some sort of performance-enhancing drug during their time in Major League Baseball.

Per testimony and evidence from Mets batboy Kirk Radomski, Vaughn first purchased HGH in 2001, coinciding with his missed season to a ruptured biceps tendon. However, Radomski testified to Mitchell that he did not sell steroids to Vaughn for a simple reason: Vaughn was "afraid of the big needles" that the steroids required. The slugger instead chose HGH over anabolic steroids due to the smaller needles required for the injections.

Of note, Major League Baseball did not ban the usage of HGH by players until 2005. There has not been any evidence to date that Vaughn broke any MLB rules in his usage of any sort of substance to rehabilitate his late-career injuries.

Read More: Ex-Mets 1B Mo Vaughn offers advice to free agent first basemen

By the time Vaughn joined the Mets in 2002 at the age of 34, he was not the same player as his reputation. Vaughn was a six-time MVP finisher and three-time All-Star in his 20s, including winning the 1995 American League MVP award with the Boston Red Sox after hitting .300 with a .963 OPS, 39 home runs, and leading the American League with 126 runs batted in.

After signing a then-record six-year, $80M contract with the Anaheim Angels prior to the 1999 season, Vaughn hit .276 with 69 homers and missed the entire 2001 season prior to being traded to New York for right-handed pitcher Kevin Appier. Appier would go on to win the 2002 World Series with the Angels, while Vaughn hit just .249 with New York and retired after just 166 games across two seasons with the club.

Vaughn, who appeared on the 2009 ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, received just 1.1% of the vote and fell off the ballot.