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The expansion of baseball's drug-testing program puts the sport substantially ahead of the National Football League, which still does not test for H.G.H. and does not have a comparable testosterone test. The N.F.L. and its players union said in 2011 that they had agreed to blood-testing for H.G.H., but since then the union has expressed reservations and no testing protocol has been established.

The new testing in baseball will allow Commissioner Bud Selig to again argue that his sport, which was faulted for initially moving far too slowly to address the issue of performance-enhancing drugs, now has the toughest testing program of any of the professional leagues in North America.

The expanded testing also comes on the heels of an awkward moment for baseball — the announcement on Wednesday that no players on the 2013 ballot for the Hall of Fame had received the 75 percent support needed to gain induction. The hundreds of baseball writers who cast ballots rejected the first-time candidacies of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens because of their direct links to performance-enhancers, underlining the lingering damage that the issue of drugs is inflicting on the sport.

Major League Baseball was the first major sport in the United States to sign on to H.G.H. testing, reaching an agreement with its union in November 2011 to begin testing for the substance. That agreement, however, called for testing only in spring training and the off-season, reflecting concerns by the players about how their blood would be collected before or after regular-season games and whether the process would impact their performance on the field.

When the original agreement was announced, both sides said they would look into expanding the testing program for 2013, which they have now done. As a result, there will now be in-season testing for H.G.H., a substance that can help players build muscle mass and recover quickly from extended physical activity but which cannot be legally used without a prescription.

The new agreement, which is likely to be announced on Thursday, also establishes a new testing regimen for testosterone, a substance that is believed to have grown in popularity within baseball because it quickly leaves a player's system after being used.

In the last year, positive drug tests have linked a number of notable players — Ryan Braun of Milwaukee; Melky Cabrera, who was then with the San Francisco Giants; and Bartolo Colon of the Oakland A's — to testosterone. Braun's test result was overturned on appeal.

The new test will establish baseline levels of testosterone in players, creating a so-called longitudinal profile of each player's testosterone ratio. Additional tests will be conducted on player samples that are onsidered outside their baselines to determine whether the player has used a performance-enhancing drug.