So this Biogenesis story keeps getting weirder huh? At first, and I mean at first as in this week, it sounded like Ryan Braun, ARod, and the rest of the players who are connected to the now-defunct Miami clinic were up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Turns out, that may not be the case.
It has now been revealed that Tony Bosch, founder of Biogenesis, struck a deal with MLB in order for his testimony against the players. Originally Bosch was facing a lawsuit from MLB. apparently he went to Alex Rodriguez and asked for money to aid in his legal defense. ARod, in his infinite wisdom (and I'm not really sure if I'm being sarcastic there or not), denied his request. Bosch then went to MLB and said that if they drop their lawsuit against him, he'll testify against the players. Not exactly what you'd call a credible witness. The player's union is going to have field day with this guy.
This whole thing brings up 3 big questions in my mind. One, do I care about these players who allegedly used performance enhancing drugs supplied by Bosch's clinic? Well, kinda. I'm fully convinced Ryan Braun took PEDs in his MVP year, we already know ARod has taken them in the past as he's admitted to it, and there are a handful of other guys that it's not really hard to believe did as well. But do I care? I guess I do. If they broke the rules they should be punished. But it doesn't really change my opinion of them. There is no one on the list that I really root for or follow. Like I said, if they did the crime they need to do the time, but it's not really shocking that there are MLB players using PEDs. There was a whole damn era named after it. We know that professional athletes in all sports, don't kid yourselves NBA and NFL fans (especially NFL), are going to do whatever they can to gain an edge. I'm not suggesting all or even the majority of them are, but it's blatantly clear that PED use isn't going to stop any time soon.
Secondly, will these suspensions actually happen? I'd like to think so, but I'm starting to seriously second guess it. If Bosch is the only witness MLB has and his only evidence is some notebooks and receipts, you have to like the player's chances. Guess what, I can write a bunch of stuff down that says Mariano Rivera has been on juice since 1994. That doesn't make it true. For the record, I'm not suggesting Rivera has ever taken anything illegal, it's just an example. Chill. What I'm getting at is without any positive tests it's going to incredibly difficult to make any suspensions stick. The player's union will fight that every step of the way and I'd have to believe they'd win. Hell, they got Braun's positive test from 2011 overturned because some FedEx guy left in the fridge too long. I'm still pissed about that if you couldn't tell. There's a reason the MLBPA is considered one of the strongest unions in the country, they're not going to take this lying down.
Lastly, where do we go from here? It's widely reported that the vast majority of players want PEDs out of the game. Fine, prove it. Tell the union reps that you want drug testing done several times a week, including blood, and I'll believe that. I guarantee every single team has a player either currently using something or seriously exploring the idea. Why not use HGH? They didn't start testing for it until this year. Not only that, is this list of 20 guys clearly didn't come up dirty and they're some of the biggest names in the game. So assuming they did use PEDs from Bosch's clinic, they obviously got away with it on the tests. And therein is MLB's problem in this case. None of these guys ever tested positive. How can you suspend someone for violating the drug policy when they didn't test positive for the drugs? Last time I checked it's not illegal to talk to a drug dealer.
The case that MLB had against these players took a major blow when the news broke about Bosch's attempted deal with ARod. There is no way that's the last leg of this story either. Instead of jumping to conclusions about who is going to be suspended and for how long, like I did initially, let's wait and see how this thing plays out. It's going to be a long summer.
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