HOUSTON -- The Astros have released former top prospect Jon Singleton, who was serving a 100-game suspension under baseball's minor league drug program after a third positive test for a drug of abuse.
The 26-year-old first baseman played 114 games for Houston in 2014-15, hitting .171 with 14 home runs. Singleton spent all of last season with Double-A Corpus Christi, where he batted .205 with 18 homers and 62 RBI.
Months before he reached the majors during spring training in 2014, he discussed his battle with marijuana addiction and alcohol abuse in an interview with The Associated Press. In that interview he said: "At this point it's pretty evident to me that I'm a drug addict."
Still, the Astros signed him to a $10 million, five-year contract before he made his major league debut on June 3 of that year. He spent the rest of that season in the majors, where he hit just .168 with 13 homers and 44 RBI. Singleton played just 19 games in the majors in 2015 and spent all of the 2016 season in Triple-A before being sent to Double-A last year.
General manager Jeff Luhnow declined to discuss Singleton's release on Tuesday.
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