What Ryan Braun’s Suspension Means For The MLB, The Brewers—And For Ryan Braun

Milwaukee Brewers star and form National League MVP Ryan Braun has been suspended without pay for the rest of the baseball season.

This appears to be the first of a series of suspensions resulting from baseball’s investigation of a Florida clinic accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs.

Mike Heller is the host of the Mike Heller Show on The Big 920 AM in Milwaukee.

Terry Bell: After a year and a half of denials, we get a partial admission and a negotiated suspension. What happened?

Mike Heller: Major League Baseball and their investigation of the Biogenesis clinic in South Miami came up with a lot of information. Tony Bosch delivered … detailed information that left Ryan Braun and the MLB Players Association with little or no choice in taking this suspension without appeal. He accepts it. [The suspension] is 65 games for the remainder of this year, which will cost him in the vicinity of $3.5 million. I think that Braun felt – and so did MLB – that there was no recourse for them in this front.

TB: Do you think he still believes in his innocence, or now do we have the smoking gun?

MH: No, I think this is an admission of guilt. I think where baseball is concerned, this is what they wanted. It also compromises the ability of other players … that were rumored to be part of Biogenesis investigations by the MLB. It gives them little or no bargaining room on their end of it, because Braun just essentially gave biogenesis and Tony Bosch credibility.

TB: What does this do for the MLB now? Is this a black eye, or does the MLB get credit now for being proactive on PD?

MH: I think the intent of [MLB Commissioner] Bud Selig is to show that they are the strongest arms in all of professional sports where drug testing and penalties are concerned, because at one point not too long ago they were the weakest. I don’t think anybody can say that about baseball anymore. I think it’s a temporary black eye, with a long-term very positive effect on baseball fans.

TB: Wisconsin sports fans are very loyal and very forgiving. But what does this mean for the Milwaukee Brewers? Ryan Braun was the team’s biggest star – the face of the franchise. Do the Brewers suffer long-term?

MH: By all accounts, Ryan Braun would be in the opening day starting lineup in 2014. To see how he will be welcomed back is going to be really interesting. There’s going to be a lot more water through the dam between now and then, and I do think that sports fans in general are very forgiving of their hometown heroes. I think where the Brewers are concerned, this year was lost. There are going to be some who, in the coming days, are going to look at this even now to say, “This worked out really well for the Brewers.” They lose their best player in a season where all was lost anyway, and then he returns in 2014 – and maybe so do the Brewers.