Ryan Braun opinion won’t be released

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball and its players’ association decided there will be no written decision in the case overturning Ryan Braun’s drug suspension, while also changing the rules that allowed the Milwaukee Brewers outfielder to get his 50-game penalty thrown out.

MLB and the union announced changes to their drug-testing agreement Thursday in the wake of the Feb. 23 decision by arbitrator Shyam Das to overturn the suspension that followed a positive test by Braun, the NL MVP.

As part of the deal, the sides agreed privately that Das will not issue a written opinion in the case, two people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sides’ decision not to announce the lack of a written decision.

Braun’s side argued his urine sample was handled improperly because the drug collector kept it at home from Saturday,

Oct. 1, until the following Monday, when he took it to a Federal Express office for shipment to the testing laboratory outside Montreal. The drug policy stated that the sample was to have been delivered to a FedEx office immediately.

Das overturned the suspension and was to give a written opinion within 30 days, but the sides asked him to hold off. Management fired Das last month and replaced him this week with Fredric Horowitz, a veteran of baseball and NHL salary arbitration cases.

The sides agreed to several changes in the drug agreement in the wake of the Braun decision. Lawyers for the Milwaukee outfielder argued the collector from Compehensive Drug Testing (CDT) did not following the section of the joint drug agreement that stated “unless instructed otherwise by CDT, the collector shall deliver the specimens to a FedEx office immediately following the completion of the collection.”

The new agreement replaces that language with “absent unusual circumstances, the specimens should be sent by FedEx to the laboratory on the same day they are collected.”


(winonadailynews.com)