Major League Baseball is doing everything and anything in its power to find evidence that links Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun with performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). A report by Bob Nightengale, a writer for USA Today, indicates that MLB is speaking with friends of the slugger and is seeking to dig up information from players that are close to him as well. Braun is the only MLB player in history to have a positive drug test overturned, and it's still unclear exactly how that happened. Clearly, it didn't sit well with MLB officials though, which is probably the reason for the aggression now.
MLB can do nothing to those not employed by the league, but there are now reports that the league will apply pressure to current players. Notes Nightengale of the roughly 90 players appearing in records of Biogenesis Clinic of Miami, "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."
What appears to clearly be the case here is that MLB didn't like the black eye from the Braun appeal. While MLB officials claim they're not targeting Braun, it appears that actions speak much louder than words in this case. Clearly, MLB is doing exactly that.
MLB can do nothing to those not employed by the league, but there are now reports that the league will apply pressure to current players. Notes Nightengale of the roughly 90 players appearing in records of Biogenesis Clinic of Miami, "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."
What appears to clearly be the case here is that MLB didn't like the black eye from the Braun appeal. While MLB officials claim they're not targeting Braun, it appears that actions speak much louder than words in this case. Clearly, MLB is doing exactly that.