Major League Baseball has Ryan Braun in their cross-hairs and are going to great lengths to nab him says Bob Nightengale of USA Today. They have contacted his friends and family, those he has done business with; anyone he is connected to. However according to this report, that is just the tip of the iceberg.
There are names of over 90 baseball players who were found in the records of the Biogenesis Clinic, and MLB could use any one of them to find out information on the clinic and even more importantly for them; Braun. Nightengale goes on to give startling detail of how MLB plans to go after the Brewer’s franchise player.
These players will have no choice but to talk to MLB officials. If they don’t cooperate, MLB can suspend them, according to the bylaws of the collective bargaining agreement.
In some cases, according to two officials who spoke to USA TODAY Sports but were unauthorized to speak publicly, some players will be granted immunity even if they admit guilt to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. They would have to fully disclose their arrangement with Tony Bosch, former director of the now-shuttered Biogenesis clinic, including any possible involvement by their agents or knowledge of other players who received performance-enhancing drugs from him.
MLB vice president Rob Manfred told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today however that every player is being investigated with “equal vigor”.
I think Nightengale’s report shows just how much MLB want to prove Braun the cheat he should have been proclaimed one year ago. The fact that they are potentially willing to pardon other players to bring him down speaks volumes. He flat out embarrassed Major League Baseball last year when he became the first player to overturn a positive test on a technicality, so much so that they fired the the arbitrator, Shyam Das, who ruled in the disgraced all-star’s favor.
They want to take him down, and they want it bad. MLB is the watchdog and prosecutor when it comes to steroids, so it is in their power to pardon/suspend players in order to take down a larger evil. However, my question is, is it right of them to do so? It’s a fine line.
They dished out a 100-game suspension to minor leaguer Cesar Carillo like nothing. I can only imagine what they have in store for Braun if they find enough evidence to act on him.
I’d expect a lot of he said/she said coming up in the near future:
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