Monday afternoon Bud Selig and Major League Baseball finally released the full list of names involved in the Biogenesis scandal and how many games they would be suspended for their role in PEDs.
First we knew of Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers who was slapped with a 65 game suspension for essentially testing positive last season only to completely throw individuals under the bus to protect his own lie. Braun too was basically cast out to the wolves by Major League Baseball and pretty much made an example of for how he conducted himself prior to the Biogenesis name was made public.
After Braun, Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees was hit with a suspension for the rest of this season and all of next season. Rodriguez’s case though is more difficult considering he didn’t strike a deal with the League and will appeal any suspension that comes his way. We’ll have more on this shortly.
Meanwhile three All-Stars this season in Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers, Everth Cabrera of the San Diego Padres and Jhonny Peralta of the Detroit Tigers were each hit with 50-game bans after they were able to strike plea deals for their admission of guilt, abandonment of the appeal process and acceptance of the penalty set fourth.
And furthermore nine other players were also banned for 50-games without any resistance in terms of an appeal. Those players are as followed:
• Antonio Bastardo, Phillies reliever
• Francisco Cervelli, Yankees catcher (on DL)
• Jordany Valdespin, Mets outfielder (minors)
• Jesus Montero, Mariners catcher (minors)
• Cesar Puello, Mets outfielder (minors)
• Sergio Escalona, Astros pitcher (minors)
• Fernando Martinez, Yankees outfielder (minors)
• Fautino De Los Santos, free-agent pitcher
• Jordan Norberto, free-agent pitcher
Those who are currently assigned to a team and under the 50-game suspension will be eligible to return to their respective teams when the suspension has been served. For most of these players their teams will more than likely have 2-3 games remaining in the regular season but could also be added to the playoff roster. This does though perhaps come at a risk considering the minor leagues will be done for the season while furthermore reinstating anyone of these players could disrupt the chemistry of the team.
In addition Bartolo Colon, Melky Cabrera, and Yasmani Grandal will not face further punishment after facing 50-game bans last season while Washington’s Gio Gonzalez and Baltimore’s Danny Valencia have been cleared of any wrong doing by the MLB after surfacing in early on in the initial Biogenesis reports.
