Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello wants harsher PED penalties
Boston Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello spoke out about his concerns with how Major League Baseball is handling penalties for performance-enhancing drugs.
Rick Porcello is not happy with Major League Baseball’s policy for penalizing players that test positive for performance enhancing drugs. In his opinion, not enough is being done to wipe PEDs from the game.
The Boston Red Sox starter spoke out about his disgust over how the league is handling PED offenders, particularly when it comes to allowing those players to keep playing during an appeal process.
If they recently tested positive, that means the illegal substance that is potentially fueling improved production could still be in their system. Why should they be allowed to put off their suspension if it allows them to play in more games that are tainted by their enhanced performance?
“I have an absolute problem with them playing under the appeal or due process because you’re taking a guy who has tested positive for something, clearly playing with that advantage at that particular time, and he’s impacting games,” Porcello told WEEI’s Rob Bradford. “The whole idea behind the system is to prevent guys who tested positive [from having] an unfair advantage in a game, then why would they be allowed to play during the appeal process when they clearly have that in their system. To me, that doesn’t make sense.”
Porcello raises a valid point. The season can often come down to a margin as slim as a game or two, so players that are allowed to continue to take the field while MLB sorts through their appeal could be swaying playoff races. The Red Sox are currently in a tight battle with the Baltimore Orioles for the top spot in the AL East. While it’s still early, Porcello is quick to mention that games in April and May count just as much in the standings as the games down the stretch.
Next: Reasons for an appeal
To play Devil’s Advocate, what happens if the appeal determines that the suspension was levied in error? As unlikely as it may be, MLB has to leave open the possibility for a false-positive test. The players are putting their trust in the league to not only conduct these PED tests fairly, but to do so without user error. If a player doesn’t believe that they knowingly took a banned substance, why shouldn’t they be allowed to appeal?
There are also cases where the player inadvertently took a banned substance that was included as an ingredient in an over the counter product, which would represent carelessness on their part rather than a malicious intent to cheat. Should the penalty be the same? Would there even be a way to prove it was unintentional? Perhaps not, but that’s part of why an appeal system exists.
If Porcello gets his way then the player would begin their suspension immediately. If an investigation confirmed the player was in fact innocent, he could be reimbursed for the paychecks he missed, but he’ll never get those games back. The player’s team is victimized just as much as a team forced to face off against a player that potentially has a banned substance coursing through their system.
Do we not live in a society that believes in innocence until proven guilty? It’s a statement we proudly make, at least until it may work against us.
Next: Fear of the penalty
There are no easy answers. Either way, we’re bound to have a team cheated out of a win by a system that has no foolproof way of dealing with alleged cheaters.
Which is why Porcello believes that MLB needs to do more to discourage players from using PEDs. If the incentive to cheat outweighs the penalty, there will always be guys that try to get away with it.
“Obviously, guys are still taking things and they don’t have the fear of the penalty,” said Porcello. “The only thing that is going to consistently get guys to respect the system and the drug testing policy is to have fear of the penalty. You’re seeing guys who test positive come out and sign multi-year deals and things like that. The amount of money you’re putting in guys faces, when all they see is dollar signs, they don’t care if they test positive because there will still be an opportunity to turn around and sign a multi-year deal.”
Already this season we’ve seen five players receive an 80-game suspension, plus a lifetime ban for former New York Mets reliever Jerry Mejia for getting caught for a third time. If this many players are still taking PEDs – and these are just the ones that we know of – clearly the incentive hasn’t been eradicated.
Next: Eyeing that next contract
While Porcello acknowledged that MLB is getting “more thorough, more frequent” with their testing, the overlaying issue is that some players will keep using banned substances as long as there are more pros than cons.
Some guys care about things like legacy, public perception, or even a moral code. That’s enough for them to stay away from PEDs. Some guys just care about money. As long as PEDs help them put up the stats that help them get paid more money, those types of players will continue to try to get away with it. If they get caught, so what? They lose some money during their suspension, but the numbers they were putting up prior to getting caught can be parlayed into a new deal down the line.
Take Melky Cabrera for example. He was suspended for 50 games in 2012, shortly after being named MVP of his first, and only, career All-Star appearance. He wasn’t nearly that caliber player earlier in his career, then when he finally has his breakout season he gets caught cheating. Did that end up hurting Cabrera in the long run? Of course not. While some teams may have been cautious of a player coming off of a PED suspension, Cabrera still managed to turn that one All-Star season into a 2-year, $16 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays that winter.
You would think that teams would be wary of giving lucrative contracts to PED offenders, yet it still continues to happen. Perhaps the answer is that there should be an annual cap on the amount a suspended player can make on future contracts. Or maybe they can never sign another multi-year contract again. Would that help negate the incentive?
Next: They aren't all cheaters
There seems to be a perception among at least a portion of the general public that most baseball players are using something to cheat, but only some get caught. That may have been somewhat true at the height of the PED era in the mid-90’s to early-2000’s, but not anymore. Yet that stigma still lingers, which is what outrageous players like Porcello that are playing the game the right way. It’s unfair for them to have to compete against guys that are cheating, just as it’s unfair for some fans to question his integrity simply because they are skeptical of anyone in the game.
Porcello isn’t the only one voicing their opinion on the matter. His former teammate with the Detroit Tigers, Justin Verlander, has also been very outspoken against PED users.
According to an anonymous poll taken by ESPN in 2014, the players surveyed estimated that 9.4 percent of major league players are taking some sort of performance enhancing drug. That’s a steep drop from what that estimate would have looked like a decade earlier, but it’s still far too high, while there are still many fans that assume the percentage is even higher.
Next: No worries for Red Sox rotation yet
MLB has made significant strides in cleaning up the game, but they still have work to do. With players like Porcello speaking up, perhaps this will lead to more changes to how the league handles these issues.