Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello wants harsher PED penalties

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.

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