Jenrry Mejia believes he was the victim of a witch hunt by Major League Baseball.

Mejia was permanently barred from baseball after three failed doping tests.

Baseball’s drug-testing program, which is jointly administered with the players’ union, caught Mejia using anabolic steroids three times. 

Mejia said that baseball officials told him that if he appealed the punishment for the second doping offense, “they will find a way to find a third positive,” Mejia said through an interpreter. “I felt there was a conspiracy against me. I feel that they were trying to find something to bring me down in my career.”

Baseball officials denied making any such threats. “No one at M.L.B. or representing M.L.B. has met with Mejia regarding any of these drug violations,” Pat Courtney, a league spokesman, said.

“The association should have done more,” Mejia said, adding that he thought the union “should have been there to defend me — because that’s what they’re there for. They should have found something to appeal for.”