Make no mistake about it, Associated Press‘ post on Twitter on Monday was an absolute attention-grabber:

But once the initial shock of the tweet wore off and baseball fans read the linked article by AP‘s Ronald Blum, it was quickly understood that the mutually-agreed-upon Joint Drug Program between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association had simply expired when the Competitive Bargaining Agreement expiered at 11:59 p.m. (ET) on December. 1, 2021, and there is no reason to believe that one will not be included in the next CBA – whenever that happens.

As Blum noted in his piece:

“When [MLB and the MLBPA] negotiated the 2017-21 drug agreement, the sides included a provision that states ‘the termination date and time of the program shall be 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, 2021.’ That matched the expiration of the five-year labor contract.“

Blum also included this quote from Travis Tygart, chief executive officer of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency:

“It should be a major concern to all those who value fair play.”

As every baseball fan knows, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were once again denied election into baseball’s Hall of Fame because of their confirmed PED use, as were Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez. Again, there is absolutely no reason to believe that this practice will not continue moving forward.

“If it’s just a simple matter of agreeing to it,” Tygart said. “You would have hoped they would have been able to get that figured out, so that when the game does restart, you don’t have questions hanging over individual players based on size, speed, batting percentage, home run numbers, whatever it may be, that people are going to call into question again.”

As pointed out by Blum:

“MLB and the union conducted 47,973 tests from 2017-21, including 7,327 during offseasons, according to a report in November from Thomas M. Martin, the independent program administrator.

“Absent fear of detection, it is hard to predict whether some players will attempt to use PEDs in the period before a new collective bargaining agreement is in place along with a restoration of the drug-testing program.“

MLB and the MLBPA reached their first joint drug agreement in late 2002, a deal that called for survey testing beginning in 2003.

“Urine testing for PEDs with penalties for violations began in 2004 under a series of a repeatedly tightened drug agreements,” notes Blum. “Testing for banned amphetamines started in 2006, and in 2012 blood testing for Human Growth Hormone began, though it was suspended last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

The bad news (you had to know this was coming) is that negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA towards establishing a new CBA is progressing at a snail’s pace, with every indication that it will not happen before pitchers and catchers are due to report for Spring Training one week from today (February 14). Additionally, should the two sides not come to an agreement real soon, the scheduled March 31 start of the 2022 regular season is also in jeopardy.

Come on, guys, let’s get this thing done … now

Play Ball!

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