MLB Dishes out Suspensions to Players Found Using PEDs

The Biogenesis scandal has been one of the biggest performance enhancing drug cases since BALCO. What has given the case so much press is the fact that it involves some of the biggest names in professional baseball. Soon after Ryan Braun was handed a suspension, Alex Rodriguez and 12 other MLB were given similar punishments.

People were shocked to hear that one of baseball’s biggest names and highest paid player, Alex Rodriguez, was tied to the Biogenesis investigation. After admitting to using PEDs in the past after a failed drug test, Rodriguez is now yet again in the center of an illegal substance case. Rodriguez’s suspension was the harshest, suspending him for the rest of this season and the entire 2014 season. He was able to avoid a lifetime ban that many thought he would receive. Although he will not be shunned from the game just like Pete Rose, he will be suspended without pay, losing out on tens of millions of dollars.

Three other All-Star baseball players were suspended, Nelson Cruz, Everth Cabrera, and Jhonny Peralta. Those three players and the rest of the suspended men were all given 50 game suspensions. The reason Rodriguez was given a much harsher punishment was because it was not his first offense. Bud Selig, the MLB commissioner, released a statement about A-Rod’s suspension that said it was allowed under the drug program’s protocols and was based upon his,

“use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including testosterone and human growth hormone, over the course of multiple years.”

So far Rodriguez has said that he will appeal his suspension. He was able to play yesterday, his first game back since playing minor league ball to rehab a previous injury. He was met by “boos” and “steroid” chants at his home field. He will be able to play until his appeal is heard by the league. The Yankees are already struggling to keep pace with the rest of the teams in the American League and may miss the playoffs. The league is giving no sympathy to the suspended players and Bud Selig is doing what he can do shut down the widespread PED use in the game.