With the Biogenesis suspension announcements only hours away, there is a sense of anxiety in the air – not the ‘who will it be?’ type of anxiety but more of a ‘is this finally the end of the PED era?’ kind of anxiety.

Realistically, MLB will never be 100% PED free – at least not until the MLB and the MLB Players’ Association (MLBPA) see eye-to-eye on this highly debated issue, which most likely will never happen – not ever.

Why?

Because the MLBPA, the single-most powerful union in the world, is more concerned about protecting their cheating members than actually eliminating them.

That’s right, the MLBPA is more concerned that admitted PED users like Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun and the dozen (or more) other cheaters are protected against penalties harsher than those outlined in their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). In other words, the MLBPA is willing to go to the mat to protect the very cheaters that they claim they are trying to eliminate. Well guess what? You can’t have it both ways. Either you really want to eliminate these cheaters or you don’t, and quite frankly, fighting in their behalf is not the way to eliminate them.

To their credit, the MLBPA (under the leadership of the highly respected Michael Weiner) has indicated that they are in favor of harsher penalties for PED users. Taking it one step further, numerous MLB players have gone on record as saying that they themselves favor harsher penalties – mostly a 100-game ban for a first offense and a lifetime ban for a second offense. But what they seem to be silent about are adding financial penalties for PED use, such as rendering multi-year/multi-million dollar contracts null and void for even a first offense. Until such financial penalties are incorporated into these suspensions, PEDs will never be completely eliminated from our beloved national pastime. It’s a simple matter of the rewards outweighing the risks.

Until PED users are penalized financially, the MLB will never be 100% PED free.
(AP photo)

Sure, Ryan Braun has undoubtedly destroyed what could have been a Hall of Fame career, as has A-Rod, Manny Ramirez, and several other known PED users. But each of these guys has or will continue to receive the millions of dollars still owed to them in spite of their suspensions. Ironically, Manny is still receiving a multi-million dollar salary from the Dodgers even though he hasn’t donned a Dodger uniform since 2010, and he was suspended twice for PED use. Talk about laughing all the way to the bank.

Manny Ramirez will receive $8.3M from the Dodgers in 2013 in spite of having been suspended twice for PED use. (Photo credit – Paul Buck)

The MLBPA will undoubted claim that the suspended players are being penalized financially because they are being suspended without pay. So what? So what if Ryan Braun doesn’t receive the full $8.5M he is owed for 2013? After serving his 65-game suspension he will receive $10M for 2014 and $12M for 2015 – and then his 5 year/$105M contract kicks in through 2020. Good job, MLBPA; no Hall of Fame plaque for Ryan Braun but he will be one of the richest people in America and he got there by cheating. Braun’s reward far outweighs any risk even after he got caught – not much of a deterrent there, wouldn’t you say? And because he did it and got away with it, why wouldn’t others try?

They of course will try – at least until the MLBPA really wants to eliminate PED use by agreeing to make the risk far greater than the reward.