MLB Drug Policy just got tougher

[markedman5]

Players and Owners agree on changes....

 

1st offense 80 games

2nd...162 games

3rd....Lifetime Ban!

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/MLB_PR/status/449644331469512705/photo/1

[dacbrewers]

It should be 162 games 1st offense, Lifetime ban 2nd offense.

[MadScientist]

I like the adding an isotope test to random samples. That should help get the ones using masking agents. Having a source of clean supplements is a smart change as well.

[igor67]

Looks nice on paper, but put me firmly in the camp that highly doubts these tweaks to the suspension lengths have any substantial affects on usage rates, and that going higher serves any purpose other than chest thumping. The length of the suspension was already equivalent to a major injury with the pay loss and revenue loss. The threat exists and will have whatever deterrent effect it will have. The downside of going to high is that you only increase the likelihood of extremely negative behaviors to avoid getting caught (i.e. people definitely behave extra stupid when they have nothing to lose).

[Baldkin]

When there's no tests for the drugs most players are using, adding stronger penalty for the dumb ones who get caught is just silly.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I got to wondering if this was a proactive move agreed to by the players union in effort to tamp down the growing push for poison pills getting put into guaranteed contracts. It's good press from the players standpoint to look like they're willing and open to "getting tougher" on PEDs, but in all honesty it's a lot of hot air. Had Tony Bosch not pissed a few of his colleagues off, none of the biogenesis players would've been suspended last season, including Braun and ARod.

 

As others have mentioned in this thread, the current testing program doesn't even test for the designer stuff that some players are assuredly still taking. Listening to games yesterday, and they're still full of commentators mentioning how veteran players decided to train harder in the offseason and magically put on 30 lbs of muscle(Josh Hamilton, for one)...that doesn't happen without unnatural help. I'm hearing the same stuff about how the game's cleaning itself up because all these great prospects and young players have been used to being tested through the minor leagues - the same stuff we were hearing when Braun was breaking into the bigs, and he was the poster boy for the supposed post-steroid era 5-6 seasons ago.

 

There always will be drug cheats, there are in every single sport because there's too much financial gain at stake and players always are looking for an edge. IMO the only way to drastically discourage (or at least signifcantly penalize) PED use in baseball with all the money flying around is to allow guaranteed contracts to be voided or significantly restructured if that player is busted for PEDs. For as holier than thou as many players project themselves to be in the media, there's still no chance in H-E-double hockey sticks that the players union would go along with that without going on strike.

[torts]

3200 urine tests, up from 1600, 400 blood tests, too, so at least they're going to be testing more often

 

guaranteed contracts arent a part of the CBA, are they?

[crossface21]

Is this going to be one of the issues that causes a stoppage in 2016? Are the owners going to push for being able to restructure or void contracts if a player is caught using PED's? I would think that the players would take a hit if they don't agree to something like that when this comes up in a couple years.

[RightFieldCoder]

The only way to suppress usage is to take away the financial bonus people like Peralta get when they use. 2nd offense: voids their current contract and resets their Service Time to 1 year. Then teams would be willing to turn in their own stars.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I doubt a "poison pill" debate will even get brought up during the next round of CBA talks, in part because of this recent stiffening of JDA penalties. MLB & owners want to continue bathing in money, along with the players union, so they likely won't want to ruffle each other's feathers with something as significant as changing contract terms - even if it only applies to players being busted for PEDs. The players union views any avenue for owners to void or restructure guaranteed contracts as a slippery slope.

 

The recent JDA penalty stiffening will be cited by both the owners (commissioner) and the players union as evidence of basball getting "cleaner", and that they're confident that hardly anyone's using PEDs anymore...at least until the next sketchy wellness clinic gets in legal or financial trouble and another dozen MLB names get leaked out to the media.

 

I honestly don't know if there's precedent for a PED poison pill in a contract for baseball - I know there are things like motorcycle/recreational vehicle use restrictions imposed (hello Jeff Kent) in contracts, but I would think something like this would need to be ok'd by both players and owners before it would be implemented league-wide. Imagine the scrutiny (both fair and unfair) if something like that was in place prior to this season, and the Angels GM would come out and say "Hey, we offered Trout an enormous contract extension that buys a few years of FA, but he declined to sign because we had PED poison pill language put into the contract." On the other hand, assuming Trout's clean he shouldn't have any issues signing a deal including a poison pill, and then he's got a huge deterrent not to ever use PEDs built into his guaranteed money.