http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/freddy-galvis-philadelphia-phillies-suspension-disabled-list-061912
Galvis serving suspension on DL
Now here’s a story pertaining to performance-enhancing drugs that’s actually
worth worrying about.
One day after Roger Clemens was cleared of perjury charges in what can only be
described as a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars, Major League Baseball
slapped Phillies infielder Freddy Galvis with a 50-game suspension after
testing positive for a metabolite of Clostebol, a PED.
On its own, the news wasn’t an industry-rattling bombshell. Galvis, while one
of the more promising prospects for the beleaguered Phillies, had managed an
OPS of only .617 this year. He hadn’t played since June 6 because of a long-
term back injury. He is on the disabled list. But he will begin serving the
suspension immediately.
And that is the interesting/troubling part.
Baseball has been suspending major-league players for PED use since 2005, under
what is rightly called the toughest drug-testing program in North American
professional sports. But it’s baffling that MLB and the players’ union have
failed to close the loophole that allows players to serve their suspensions
while on the disabled list.
The parties had another chance during negotiations on a new collective
bargaining agreement last offseason. Once again, they couldn’t agree on a
commonsense solution. The inconsistency is there, just as it was for Cincinnati
Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez in 2010. Volquez served his PED suspension while
on the disabled list after Tommy John surgery.
In theory, what’s to stop a player from sustaining a long-term injury and
taking PEDs to help him recover, knowing full well that any possible suspension
would expire before he’s ready to play again?
By declining to patch the loophole, baseball and its union gave unnecessary
ammunition to critics who say the sport hasn’t done enough to address the
specter of steroid use – when in fact commissioner Bud Selig has made
considerable progress in the area.
Just this month, MLB and the players’ union announced their agreement to add
a blood test for HGH during spring training, the offseason and for reasonable
cause. There will be more random PED tests during the regular season and
offseason. Expanded HGH testing during the regular season is under discussion,
too. In those important respects, the program is better than it was last year;
Selig and MLBPA executive director Michael Weiner deserve credit for that.
Yet, they didn’t make the simplest fix of all: If a player tests positive for
a PED, time on the disabled list shouldn’t count toward his sentence. A panel
of doctors – jointly agreed upon by MLB and the union – ought to determine
when he would otherwise be fit to return, at which point the suspension would
commence. The union may have argued that players’ rights would have been
jeopardized by such a system, but those concerns could have been allayed with
a union-approved doctor on the panel.
Are these isolated cases? Yes. Was the union’s stubbornness on this issue
egregious enough that it would have been worth jeopardizing the ratification
of the new CBA? As a practical matter, no.
But in the end, baseball’s drug testing program is supposed to be about
fairness. And the notion of Galvis serving his suspension while on the DL just
doesn’t seem right.