Baseball and PEDs: Further Down the Rabbit Hole

by Ryan Henry

After Melky Cabrera, San Francisco didn’t just lose their best hitter and the only person who could cover for Buster Posey in their lineup. They also lost a legitimate MVP candidate. Baseball also came face-to-face with performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) yet again. Not even two weeks later, Oakland A’s ace Bartolo Colon tested positive for PEDs. Their punishment? Each was suspended for 50 games. This seems almost too fitting as Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens all become eligible for the Hall of Fame. Eventually, baseball is going to have to admit that PEDs are a problem and that putting a stop to their use is more important than losing one of their stars.

Cabrera before his suspension. Courtesy of mlb.com

First of all, 50 games for a first offense is simply not enough of a penalty to actually cut down on PED use. During a radio interview with ESPN Radio New York, Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO, said that “as much as 50 percent” of MLB players currently use PEDs. While the actual numbers are probably lower, that does not mean that PEDs are not an epidemic that is plaguing baseball. These players are essentially committing fraud against the paying public. Both Cabrera and Colon are important pieces on contending teams. That does not even count Ryan Braun who was almost suspended during the off season, but escaped penalty due to a technicality. Braun is the reigning NL MVP and it was the first time that a suspension for PED use had been overturned.

Braun narrowly avoided his own suspension. Courtesy of mlb.com

Baseball’s drug testing policy is flawed. It doesn't catch enough people, and even when it works, the punishment isn't severe enough. Some of the proposed solutions range from making a first offense a year-long suspension to holding a player’s salary in escrow until a player passes drug tests to a team forfeiting wins for artificially winning games as a result of PEDs. After all, Cabrera’s .346 batting average or Colon’s 3.43 ERA are largely owed to their use steroids.

Colon was suspended 50 games for testing positive for testosterone. Courtesy mlb.com

So in light of the revelation that steroid use is still rampant throughout baseball that means that the steroid era is far from over, despite what MLB wants us to believe. With the first of the so-called steroid era becoming Hall of Fame eligible, what should baseball do? Let them in. Steroid detection began in 2006 when MLB adopted the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Since then there have been only 37 players suspended by this policy, and of those 37 only one (other than the 2 this year) have been notable plays: Manny Ramirez, twice. Those 37 players were suspended for a variety of reasons ranging from failure to comply with treatment programs to steroid use. The most troubling of these suspensions is that of Ramirez. He was suspended twice, once in 2009 and he served a 100 game suspension in 2011. The allure of steroids was so captivating that not even a 100 game suspension would dissuade him.

Ramirez was suspended for 100 games while with the Dodgers. Courtesy mlb.com

Since baseball cannot develop tests fast enough to test accurately for steroids and is either unwilling or unable to punish players sufficiently to get them to stop using then, it is time for baseball to begin to accept it. I don’t think that the MLB should stop trying to catch people who defraud baseball by using steroids, but they also shouldn't deny Bonds and company their deserved trip to Cooperstown simply because they did what everyone else was doing at the time. Baseball also cannot be certain how deep the proverbial rabbit hole goes. Where do the voters draw the line? They only admit people that are perfectly clean, i.e. have never been suspected of PED use? What about people that have been suspected but later cleared? What about pitchers who pitched in a World Series while wearing a bloody sock that has already fended off perjury allegations in front of a grand jury? These are all impossible questions. There is no correct arbitrary line. Don’t vote a player in if he was convicted of steroid use. That is a pretty clear line in the sand, but denying deserving players based on hearsay and suspicion isn’t right. After all, they are innocent until proven guilty.