MLB: Proposed Penalty Just A Wrist Slap

The proposed penalty from MLB for pitchers being caught with sticky fingers amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

In any metaphor where MLB is playing the part of the parent, the players are the kids getting away with murder.

Certainly that is the case with MLB pitchers and the league, and the constantly evolving landscape of foreign substance use. Not PEDs or HGH this time, but sunscreen. Pine tar. Boogers. And as become patently clear over the past year, a whole slew of specifically engineered products that allow pitchers to put unprecedented spin on their pitches. Spider-Tack. Sticky-Grip. Boiled Coca-Cola. Think about that last one, and the dedication to gaining an unfair advantage that must have brought about that discovery.

Honestly, Coca-Cola needs to sign that pitcher to an endorsement deal.

Back to baseball though, and what was once accepted as common practice has quickly become forbidden. Culminating in Tuesday morning’s announcement that the penalty for being caught using virtually any substance will be a 10-day suspension with pay.

Ummm, are you kidding me, MLB?

Let’s get this straight. If a pitcher is caught using a foreign substance, they will promptly go on a paid vacation? During which time they will presumably not be doing anything that could result in an injury, thus protecting and perhaps even increasing future earnings potential? Depending how teams structure their rotation, this might not even be a two start absence. The risk/reward math here just does not add up.

Now, this is not meant to suggest that the punishment needs to be massively draconian. And that crack about time off being good for pitcher health shouldn’t be interpreted as my believing that pitchers throw sim games or bullpens every day at the alternate site during their suspension. But it does need to amount to something more than a laughable slap on the wrist, which is what this proposal currently is looking like.

Let’s put in PED terms. Currently, users face an 80-game ban for a first offense. Further, they are banned from the postseason in the same year the suspension was levied. Plus, they don’t get paid during the suspension.

So at the very least, shouldn’t pitchers face the same loss of pay that users of more traditional banned substances do?

Personally, I don’t think the penalty for altering the surface of a ball should carry the same weight as physically altering one’s self. Especially when it has been so systematically encouraged at all levels of the sport, which does make this a very different situation from the Steroid Era…even if players and pundits are starting to talk about it in similar terms. I mean, there is also talk of MLB developing their own league approved version of sticky stuff. I don’t recall hearing anything about a commissioner approved steroid while Barry Bonds was breaking home run records.

However, if the league is going to enforce this, the penalty has to be stiffer. Make it without pay. Make it for twenty games instead of ten. Maybe even a massive fine. Throw in that postseason ban too, although it can’t just be that considering only about twelve teams worth of pitchers would really care about that on a year to year basis.

Just my two cents, MLB. Which is two cents more than your suggested penalty will cost someone who’s making a minimum of $570,000 per year.