It’s much easier to go after minor leaguers who don’t have the protection of baseball’s strong players union,
but it seems that this first suspension related to the Miami scandal is a
warning shot that MLB is completely committed to gathering the evidence needed
to go after these alleged PED cheats.
A lot of news is broken on
social media these days, but given that this is a Tweet limited to 140
characters, it is pretty short on specifics. We do not know how close Major
League Baseball is to having enough evidence to punish ARod, an admitted
steroid cheat, and Braun, who disrupted baseball’s entire testing system in an
attempt to prove his innocence.
But I hope they have enough
evidence to suspend both of them for a long time. Braun angered even fellow baseball players by his selfish attempt to bring down the whole system to get
off the hook. ARod has pissed off many people inside and outside the New York
Yankees organization with his unending drama, rapidly deteriorating health and
onerous contract. I think the Yankees would be thrilled if ARod was suspended
for baseball, even if it’s just for 50 games and not enough to void that
contract, because it would get him out of their hair for a while. Notice how we
have barely heard a peep out of ARod, who is not even rehabilitating with the
team, and how that has limited much of the off-the-field drama for the Yankees.
If it weren’t for all the injuries, the Yankees would be quite boring these
days.
Both ARod and Braun have the money
and manpower to fight potential suspensions and we all know Braun will go to
any lengths to avoid punishment. But if I was Braun, I wouldn’t count on getting
off on a technicality this time. Major League Baseball will build an airtight
case before it goes after either one of them. I really hope baseball officials can
get there.