Ryan Braun Suspension: Long-Term Sorrow is Really For Brewers Management

This week’s season-ending suspension of Milwaukee Brewers leftfielder Ryan Braun because of his involvement with performance enhancing drugs (PED) is another example of how things are supposed to work in this life.  If you mess up seriously, then there will be serious consequences.

Now, this is definitely not a condemnation of Ryan.  Sure, he disappointed his family, fans and teammates in a big way, but he isn’t the first professional athlete to meet his Moral Waterloo, nor will he be the last.  It’s also safe to say that if we live long enough, each of us will be guilty of misdeeds which we will regret deeply and desperately hope for a second chance.  The advantage most of us will have is that our major wrong-doings will not receive the publicity of sports and public figures.  Ryan is human and deserves another chance.

The Brewers and their fans have the immediate problem of dealing with another let-down for the remainder of this already trashed season (Milwaukee is 41-57 and 19 games back in the NL Central as of this writing).  Initially, we need to feel for the young fans who are having their trust in athletes shaken for the first time.  Eventually, they will learn forgiveness and that their strong admiration should be directed to those who are more than just gaudy statistics.  The Brewer players and supporters will begin to heal and look forward as well.

But the damage is not limited to this.  While most are sympathetic to the plight of the team and the Brewer faithful, it’s time to recognize where noteworthy damage has occurred.  The MLB web site has this to say about Ryan Braun’s contract, “A five-time All-Star who won the 2007 National League Rookie of the Year Award and the 2011 NL MVP Award, Braun is in the middle of a club-record contract that runs through 2020. He is earning $8.5 million this season and will forfeit nearly $3.5 million during his suspension.”¹

“Braun still has seven years and more than $120 million remaining on his contract. He will earn $10 million in 2014 and $12 million in ’15 before a five-year, $105 million contract extension kicks in. It runs through at least 2020.”¹

OK, so Braun will forfeit a little more than $3 million for this season and the players will see attendance suffer in August and September.  However, Brewer management must feel the most betrayed.  They signed him to a long-term contract on the basis of some truly outstanding seasons.  The decision was made to keep Braun as the de facto franchise player and allow Prince Fielder to become a free agent.  Now, in retrospect, they extended themselves financially for a player who was misrepresenting his true abilities.

Of course, there’s no reason to expect Braun to become an ordinary player starting next season.  However, there’s also no reason to expect him to be able to put up the numbers which led to his incredibly lucrative contract.  I’d like to think that the Milwaukee ownership would have some legal recourse to soften the hit to its organization.

Until then, a majority of my sympathies go to them.

¹ – Adam McCalvy, www.mlb.com, 7/23/2013