The eight-week suspension handed down by Major League Baseball to Marlins’ pitcher Juan Oviedo last week shows just how out of touch MLB suspension policies are with reality. Oviedo will miss approximately 46 games between May 28 and July 22, when he is eligible to return to MLB. He will miss approximately four fewer games than any players who violate MLB’s performance-enhancing drug policy for the first time, such as Manny Ramirez. And that doesn’t count the actual time Oviedo has missed since being placed on the MLB restricted list in September 2011.
Brewers’ outfielder Ryan Braun tested positive for greatly elevated testosterone and a prohibited drug during the 2011 season, one in which he earned the National League MVP award. Braun’s suspension was overturned because the courier charged with delivering the sample to the lab took the sample home with him for two days before sending it to the lab, because the sample could not be delivered to the lab that same day as required under the MLB collective bargaining agreement. Braun’s sample was never tainted, but he nonetheless had his 50-game suspension overturned because of this technical breach of the CBA.
Ramirez also tested positive for a prohibited drug early last season with Tampa Bay, which was the second such incident his career, and chose to retire rather than serve a 100-game suspension. Ramirez has since signed a minor league deal with Oakland in 2012, had his suspension reduced to 50 games, and is playing in the minors with the goal of joining the A’s sometime this season.
Oviedo was suspended on May 28 for eight weeks for lying about his birth date and his identity when he initially signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2000. Up to September 2011, Oviedo pitched in the Majors under the assumed name of Leo Nunez, with a date of birth one year later than his actual birthday. In January 2012, Roberto Hernandez was arrested in the Dominican Republic for perpetrating a similar offence, having pitched for Cleveland as three-year younger Fausto Carmona for the past six seasons.
Players coming from the Dominican Republic have come under increasing scrutiny, and many players from that country have been suspected of lying about their true identity and/or age. When Albert Pujols was testing the free agent market this past offseason, rumours resurfaced that baseball’s best player was in fact much older than his stated age of 32 years. There has never been any proof that Pujols has lied about his age, although his career-worst .398 slugging percentage and .692 OPS this season are fodder for the argument that he is, in fact, a much older man in the declining years of his career.
Unlike Braun or Ramirez, Oviedo and Hernandez did not gain any competitive advantage on the playing field as a result of their transgressions. By saying that they were younger than they actually were, Oviedo or Hernandez may have appeared to scouts to be promising 18 or 19 year olds, rather than average 19 or 20 year olds. At best, Oviedo and Hernandez may have been able to secure their first contracts with Major League clubs in 2000 more easily, and they may have been able to sign more lucrative, longer term contracts later in their careers. It is ludicrous to argue that either player has gained any performance advantage by using false names and altered birth dates. Last year, Oviedo managed to save 36 games for the Marlins, but he posted a 4.06 ERA, and a 1.21 WHIP, which were actually improvements on his mediocre career ERA of 4.34 and career 1.32 WHIP. Similarly, Hernandez allowed an astronomical 205 hits in 188.2 innings in 2011, to go with a putrid 5.25 ERA and 1.41 WHIP. Again, both figures are very close to his career averages in these categories. The lies perpetrated by Oviedo and Hernandez didn’t turn them into major league stars or even notable players, rather, they allowed two very ordinary players to reach the Major Leagues earlier than they otherwise might have.
Oviedo’s suspension, and the inevitable suspension to Hernandez, will actually be much longer than the number prescribed by MLB, as both players have not been able to play at all this season due to immigration troubles with the United States. Oviedo will have missed nearly 10 months of Major League Baseball if he returns in July 2012. Both Oviedo and Hernandez stand to lose considerable amounts of money as a result of their dishonesty, and neither player has been paid since going on the restricted list in September 2011 and January 2012, respectively. In April 2012, Hernandez’s contract with the Indians was renegotiated to reflect the fact that he was a year older than advertised, and will pay him up to $4.8 million less from 2012 to 2013, depending on his performance. Hernandez is still waiting to see what suspension will be handed down to him by MLB. Both players must resolve their immigration status with the U.S. before continuing their careers, and there is no guarantee that this will happen.
And this is exactly why Major League Baseball has to be more lenient on these two players. The press release posted by MLB gave absolutely no reason as to how or why the Commissioner’s Office felt that an eight week suspension was appropriate for Oviedo. However, this suspension effectively puts him on the same level of moral culpability as known dopers such as Braun and Ramirez, players who took drugs to gain an unfair competitive advantage over their opponents. The fact that Braun and Ramirez have achieved such great success in their careers in part due to illegal drug use makes them and other such players far more reprehensible.
Hernandez and Oviedo were motivated to lie because they were poor kids from the Dominican Republic who were desperate to sign Major League contracts and to gain the tremendous financial security which comes with such contracts. By contrast, the motivation for taking performance-enhancing drugs as an established MLB player is first and foremost the gain of an unfair performance advantage over one’s opponents, and second, any pecuniary or other benefits which follow. Major League Baseball cannot and should not equate the wrongful purposes of these two, very different offences.
Oviedo and Hernandez deserve to be suspended, and they deserve to be shamed for their dishonesty. But they don’t deserve to reside in the same purgatory which the League sets aside for some of its worst offenders. Until MLB changes its suspension policy for performance-enhancing drug use, the penalties handed down to Oviedo, and eventually Hernandez, are disproportionate, harsh and ultimately unsuccessful attempts by the Commissioner to bring a just resolution to these unfortunate incidents.
…and that is the Last Word.
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