Major League Baseball tried to do as much as possible to punish San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera after he tested positive for high levels of testosterone. It suspended him 50 games, which will cost him about $1.5 million in salary, and his absence is a serious blow to the Giants’ offense and maybe their playoff hopes.
Add in the money lost this offseason when the free agent-to-be was supposed to cash in on his brilliant 2012 season, and the penalties are severe for Cabrera. He likely now will have to settle for another one-year contract — almost certainly not back in San Francisco — to prove himself clean.
And, of course, there are the embarrassing revelations in a New York Daily News article Sunday that a Cabrera associate — that’s never a good term — tried to build a fake website to throw MLB investigators off the track and demonstrate that Cabrera couldn’t have known the supplement he was taking would raise his testosterone levels. None of it was true, of course, and all of it makes Cabrera look terrible. Even his own agents, the New York-based Levinson brothers, threw him under the bus by denying the associate worked for their company at all.
But as his career crashes down around him, there’s one scenario in which Cabrera wins. He currently is second in the National League with a .346 batting average and is a good bet to win the batting crown. Because he is just one plate appearance away from qualifying for the title, baseball simply will add an out to Cabrera’s stats and use that final total as the basis for his average. It doesn’t seem an honor befitting a cheater. About the sport’s only hope is for Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen (.354) to maintain his scorching pace. The problem? Cabrera’s absence actually makes it easier for him to win. McCutchen has to earn it over the final six weeks while Cabrera sits and watches.
Something similar almost happened last fall when Ryan Braun was named NL MVP only to test positive for a banned substance afterward. He challenged the collection process and won on a technicality. But even in the alleged post-steroid era, the sport will continue to deal with these uncomfortable scenarios.
– Brian McNally
