SALON

Thursday, Feb 21, 2013 7:32 PM UTC

Weiner says media shouldn’t jump to conclusions

By

Topics: From the Wires,

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — Baseball union head Michael Weiner says reporters should refrain from jumping to conclusions about media reports linking players to a Florida anti-aging clinic accused of distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs.

Starting his annual tour of the 30 spring training camps, Weiner cautioned that Major League Baseball is still investigating Biogenesis of America, a defunct anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables, Fla.

“The players understand that what’s happening in Miami at this point remains to be seen in terms of fairness and judging things on the evidence,” Weiner said Thursday. “But there is a lot of talk in the clubhouse about where we should be on the joint drug program, and that’s a good thing.”

After his one-hour session with the Mets, Weiner also discussed the agreement with management last month to extend blood testing for human growth hormone into the regular season. HGH testing began last year but was limited to spring training.

As part of the changes to the joint drug agreement, the World Anti-Doping Agency laboratory in Laval, Quebec, will keep records of each player, including his baseline ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone.

“They understand the blood testing is only postgame, so nobody can have their blood drawn pregame, and they also understand there are protections there in case there’s a health-related or a weather/heat related reason why they can’t give blood,” Weiner said. “Players understand it’s important to have the strongest program possible, and given both the testosterone changes and the HGH changes, they’re very much for it.”

Weiner succeeded Donald Fehr as union head in 2009, and this tour is his first of spring training since announcing in August he is being treated for a brain tumor. The 51-year-old appeared thin and never specifically addressed his health or how he was feeling. He spent time in the Mets clubhouse before the meeting chatting and laughing with players, including third baseman David Wright and pitcher Johan Santana.

Part of Weiner’s talk with media was a discussion of changes to draft-pick compensation for free agents under the new labor contract. Teams made $13.3 million qualifying offers last November to nine free agents — teams signing those players would lose a top selection in this June’s amateur draft.

The Mets were hesitant to negotiate with outfielder Michael Bourn because they didn’t want to lose the 11th overall pick. While the teams among the top 10 selections cannot lose their first-round pick, the Mets were vulnerable because they dropped from 10th to 11th in the selection order when Pittsburgh failed to sign No. 8 pick Mark Appel last summer — meaning the Pirates gained an extra selection after this year’s eighth pick.

New York had maintained its first-round pick should have been protected because it originally was among the top 10. Bourn agreed to a $48 million, four-year deal with Cleveland, and the issue never went before an arbitrator.

Pitcher Kyle Lohse is the only one of the nine free agents carrying compensation who remains unsigned.

“Prior to going to the qualifying offer system, we had 30, 35 guys that carried compensation with them; it was reduced to nine, and many of those nine had no problem signing like Nick Swisher or B.J. Upton and others,” Weiner said. “Is it a concern that it seemed to be an issue and continues to be an issue with Kyle Lohse, that is seemed to be an issue with Adam LaRoche, that it seemed to be an issue with Michael Bourn? Yes. And we’ll try to address that.

“The good news is we’re down to, in the Basic Agreement, a very small number of players who carry compensation. The compensation affected those guys fairly dramatically this year, and we’d like to try to address that.”

While the current collective bargaining agreement runs through 2016, Weiner said there could be discussions about altering the agreement before then.

More By Jon Santucci.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations