It’s the 29th of July, so all the talk in major league baseball is about the trade deadline, yes?
Well, not entirely, let’s put it that way. The Baltimore Orioles are chasing starting pitcher Jake Peavy, while the Rangers signed Matt Garza from the Cubs for the remainder of the season.
But now, after the Ryan Braun suspension and the fallout from baseball’s first ‘big name’ drug suspension, new reports are surfacing that the remaining 20 to 25 players will be suspended this week.
That is what we are all talking about. Who cares about a pitcher landing in a new rotation, it’s all about finding out whether Alex Rodriguez will be banned for the remainder of this season and all of next, and who else has been using. These suspensions, after all, could change the pennant races for good as we enter the final two months of the regular season.
Nevertheless, if there are two dozen or so bans handed out this week, it is not certain they will be agreed to immediately because appeals will almost certainly be filed, and these hearings aren’t set to be dealt with until September.
Back to A-Rod, and the Yankees slugger is set to face a longer ban than the others even though he hasn’t tested positive since the random testing period began in 2004. In 2003, A-Rod failed the supposedly anonymous testing before admitting he had juiced between 2001 and 2003 while with the Texas Rangers.
Also failing A-Rod is his apparent obstruction of the Biogenesis investigation. One allegation aimed at the third baseman is that he purchased documents from a former clinic employee in order to destroy them, and that he also denied having any link to the Miami-area clinic.
He is, as Derek Trotter used to say, ‘in deep shtuck’.
If Rodriguez is suspended for this season and next, he will still be owed around $60million until 2017, despite his contract being partially terminated due to the suspension. The Yankees cannot rid him from their books, however much they would love to do so now, and it remains unlikely that he will retire because of the money he is still owed.
It is one contract New York will forever wish they could turn the time on, despite A-Rod’s sound performance in the postseason in 2009 when he won his one and only World Series ring, and New York its twenty-seventh.
Ryan Braun’s suspension hasn’t saddened me, because let’s face it he had it coming. Since somehow dodging a ban in 2011, Braun has lied to teammates and used everyone in his wake to manipulate and make believe that he was forever clean. Since his name and legacy are now in jeopardy, or perhaps put better out of the window, I would like to see Matt Kemp be awarded the 2011 MVP award that Braun was in hindsight wrongly awarded.
The image of baseball is tarnished but not as much as Braun’s, and the use of steroids will never turn fans against the game completely. True, Milwaukee’s focal point in terms of commercialisation and exposure was Braun’s name, which makes his suspension different to all others before him.
But what would really help eradicate this ongoing problem is to terminate the remainder of a players’ contract if he is found guilty of drug use. Braun will miss the remainder of this year with a 65-game suspension, but he will be ready to earn his millions with the Brewers or any other team from the beginning of the 2014 season as the final years of his current contract remain intact. That just encourages other players to use because the effects aren’t as bad as they should be.
But in A-Rod’s case, his reputation, his legacy, his records and now even his playing career are in huge jeopardy.
