A lot has been said about the Biogenesis scandal, the latest steroid scandal to rock Major League Baseball.
Rumors have flown around saying that the MLB will seek 100-game suspensions for the 20 players listed in Biogenesis documents.
Columnists across the country have called this potentially the biggest drug bust in the history of professional baseball.
But will it even happen?
Consider the evidence that the MLB has.
There are documents from Biogenesis, the now-out-of-business drug company that allegedly provided MLB stars like Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun and Melky Cabrera with performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). It also has the testimony of Tony Bosch, the company’s founder.
That’s it. The evidence includes only documents and the words of a guy talking to the MLB to avoid being sued.
No shipments of steroids, no used syringes, and in most cases, no positive tests were mentioned. Can the MLB suspend a player for more than half a season based on his connection to a drug company?
Here’s the problem: it needs to happen. MLB commissioner Bud Selig thought the steroid era was over, and it turns out that he couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
The punishments handed out over the last decade clearly haven’t deterred players from using, and this current scandal provides a great opportunity to change that.
Borderline excessive punishments would go a long way toward keeping players from using, but it’s unlikely that the MLB Player’s Association (MLBPA) would go along with it.
A lifelong ban from the game for a second offense isn’t in the MLB’s plans, but it would certainly be a strong enough deterrent.
Even so, the MLBPA would strongly oppose it and fans might see it as an overreaction.
Just think about if Ryan Braun wasn’t in the league anymore.
The Milwaukee Brewers would lose their franchise player and fantasy baseball drafts would be changed for a decade.
A former MVP, Rookie of the Year and five-time Silver Slugger, Braun would be out of the game before his 30th birthday.
Also, as ESPN’s Howard Bryant pointed out, the scandal could threaten the labor peace between the MLB and the MLBPA.
Major punishments without concrete evidence that the PEDs were taken could make the MLBPA very unhappy.
It could even lead to a return to the bitterness that existed between the players and owners before 1994, the last time the players went on strike.
All in all, it’s a bit of a catch-22. The MLB needs to make a statement to keep its players clean, but it will have a very difficult time doing that without more evidence.
It won’t be able to get more evidence without a stronger drug policy, which will be hard to get unless everyone, including the MLBPA, recognizes steroids as a widespread problem.
That won’t happen until many players are caught.
Right now, the MLB has caught the players. Now it’s up to Selig to decide whether documents and a faulty testimony are enough to take the next step.
Jason Clark is a senior journalism major and the sports editor for the Daily 49er.