Baseball reaches new agreement for drug testing

By Charles Swanigon/reporter

Major League Baseball and the Players Association reached an agreement earlier this month that will increase the number of drug tests administered each year.

This measure is an attempt by the league to restore credibility to the game.

In the deal, the sides agreed to the following:

• Annual tests will rise by 600 to 3,600.

• As many as 375 offseason tests can be conducted over the next three years, up from the current limit of 60 per offseason.

• Testing will include the top 200 prospects for each year’s annual draft.

• The Independent Administration will issue an annual report detailing what substances resulted in positive tests, the number of tests given and therapeutic use exemptions by category of ailment.

• Additional substances were added to the banned list—insulin-like growth factor, gonadotropins, aromatase inhibitors, selective estrogen receptor modulators and clomid and other antiestrogens.

• An automatic stay for an initial suspension will be expanded to players disciplined for conduct unrelated to a positive test.

What may be considered the most important agreement by some is that players named in the Mitchell Report will receive amnesty.

That action eliminates the 15-day suspensions dealt to Jose Guillen and Jay Gibbons Dec. 6 and put on hold March 28. 

Their suspensions would have started April 9 without this agreement.

The Mitchell Report investigated steroid use in Major League Baseball conducted by Sen. George Mitchell of Maine.

The 409-page report included the names of 89 current and former players who, based on evidence he collected, used steroids and other prohibited substances.

The Players Association and the players still maintain the decision over whether a player can be subjected to a reasonable-cause testing.

However, MLB did not take the advice of the World Anti-Doping Agency to use outside agencies for testing. This is the third time players and owners have strengthened their efforts to deter the use of performance-enhancing drugs since the initial agreement in 2002.