Ryan Braun and Baseballs Drug Laws

In October of 2011 the year he won the National League s Most Valuable Player award a test of Braun s urine found the presence of synthetic testosterone along with a generally elevated level of the hormone. Under Major League Baseball s drug policy that violation a first offense earned him a fifty game suspension. Braun denied taking any banned substances and appealed the ruling. In February 2012 before spring training an arbitrator overturned the suspension citing a breakdown in the sample collecting procedure that hinged essentially on the official collector failing to get the urine to a FedEx delivery center on time. The day after the ruling Braun held a triumphant press conference during which he thanked fans who had reserved judgment and stood by him. He went on to question the motivation of the collector Dino Laurenzi Jr. and to note that tampering with his sample would have been quite easy. (Laurenzi who has collected hundreds of samples from baseball players denied that he did anything wrong.)

At the time some columnists and players grumbled that Braun had gotten off on a technicality. Maybe he had. But in a way that was a good thing even though it meant he escaped punishment it was a signal that baseball had finally applied the rule of law to its drug problem that the M.L.B. now had a fair and transparent set of guidelines in place for testing and enforcement after decades of inaction half measures and lawlessness and that it would stick to those guidelines even in a situation where doing so might prove embarrassing. Major League Baseball briefly threatened further legal action in the case but soon gave way. Braun didn t miss a game and last season he finished second in M.V.P. voting in the National League.

A little less than a year later however Braun was back in the news in connection with performance enhancing drugs and thus once again in the sights of the league s enforcers. In January the Miami New Times published a blockbuster investigative report on Biogenesis which included a detailed analysis of sales receipts and treatment logs for what appeared to be a handful of high profile baseball players hidden by the clinic with clumsy or obvious nicknames. Braun s name appeared in the documents. (After the story broke Braun said that he had consulted with Biogenesis during his suspension appeal process but had never used any substances from them.) Bosch the clinic s operator had previously denied having treated any of the players. But the M.L.B. filed a lawsuit against him in March and the pressure of it seems to have turned him from antagonist to witness. Bosch will begin meeting with the M.L.B. s investigators on Friday and based on the strength of what league officials expect to learn from him sources told ESPN that suspensions could be handed down in as few as two weeks.

This however raises a question Suspensions for what exactly Ryan Braun is not accused of failing a drug test in this case. Instead the league may push for a hundred game suspension the equivalent of two separate punishments one for the alleged connection to Biogenesis and the other for lying about drug use to league officials. Under the new Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program players can be suspended for the use and possession of banned performance enhancing drugs as well as for testing positive. If the M.L.B. considers Bosch s evidence along with other information from its investigation of Biogenesis as proof of use it can proceed with those suspensions. Meanwhile the notion that lying to or misleading league officials constitutes a violation of the policy is on less firm ground.

These premises and any potential suspensions are very likely to be challenged by the Major League Baseball Players Association which would lead to arbitration of individual cases. The union will also likely emphasize the league s failure to ensure confidentiality in the testing and enforcement processes which have been marred by leaks in the past. But by this point the union is in a tough spot on the one hand it must protect the rights of the accused players. On the other it is also tasked with protecting the wider rights of all its members against any cheaters in their midst. The players as eager as everyone else to finally clean up the game and move forward on even ground agreed to the current testing regime after all. It remains to be seen how much appetite their union has for protecting a few players who may have been seeking an unfair advantage in this late stage of the steroid era.

If the league goes ahead with a suspension of Braun his fate will likely again be in the hands of an arbitrator. This morning he stood by the statements he made about Biogenesis back in the winter saying that the truth has not changed. In 2012 Braun said that having his suspension overturned was the first step in restoring my good name and reputation. Wednesday morning ESPN s Buster Olney said that if it is proven that Braun used performance enhancing drugs after denying it so staunchly and even attack ing the system he would become the Lance Armstrong of his sport and the valedictorian of cheaters in baseball. For now Braun will just keep showing up at the ballpark where his play this season has earned him a slightly lower spot on a much more auspicious list third place among National League outfielders in the All Star voting.

Photograph by Morry Gash/AP.

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