Melky Cabrera Suspension: How Giants Star's 50-Game Ban Opens Up NL MVP Race

The Melk Men are going to have to find a new gig, because Major League Baseball has dropped the ban hammer on San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera.

The league passed along word via its official Twitter account on Wednesday that Cabrera has been suspended for 50 games due to a positive test for testosterone:

"

BREAKING: Giants OF Melky Cabrera suspended 50 games without pay after testing positive for Testosterone, a performance-enhancing substance.

— MLB (@MLB) August 15, 2012"

There will be no Ryan Braun funny business in the days and weeks to come. In a statement issued through MLB, Cabrera freely admitted that he had used a banned substance. His suspension is his mistake, not MLB's.

Which is funny in an odd sort of way, as it was just a couple of weeks ago that Cabrera denied rumors that were circulating around the Internet that he had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He said he had nothing to be worried about and was quick to chalk up his success this season to good old-fashioned hard work.

So much for that, and what a shame that is. Cabrera's .346 batting average is good for second in the National League, and he also leads the NL in runs scored and all of baseball in hits with 159. He walked away from the NL's rout in the All-Star Game with the All-Star Game MVP award.

There was at least a chance that he would end up walking away with the National League MVP award, too, when all was said and done at the end of the season. He was in the middle of a career year, and he's been, without a doubt, the most consistent player on a Giants team that has been on top of the NL West for a good portion of the season.

He was an MVP candidate, but that ship has sailed.

That's obviously bad news for the Giants and their legions of fans (Melk Men included), but it's good news for the other hopefuls in the NL MVP race.

Especially, strangely enough, Giants catcher Buster Posey. He's surged into the NL MVP discussion thanks to a second half that has seen him hit .441/.520/.775 with nine home runs, and now, he no longer has to worry about Cabrera stealing votes from him when it comes time for the voters to fill out their ballots.

Posey is not the man to beat in the NL MVP race right now. Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen is the NL leader in WAR, according to FanGraphs, and both myself and fellow B/R MLB guru Ian Casselberry agree that McCutchen is on top of the NL MVP race for the time being.

But that could easily change down the stretch now that Cabrera is out of the picture. If Posey stays hot and carries the Giants into the playoffs while McCutchen's Pirates fall out of the race, it's going to be hard to deny Posey votes, seeing as how he'll have carried the Giants with no help whatsoever from one of the NL's best hitters.

Not that Posey is the only player who stands to gain MVP votes from Cabrera's exit from the race, of course. The fact that he's out means there's one less player for fellow contenders like Matt Holliday, David Wright, Ryan Braun and others to worry about. 

It also means there's one less player in the mix for Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto to leapfrog when he comes off the disabled list. (The club's official site says this could happen in late August.)

Votto was right there with McCutchen at the top of the NL MVP race when he had to shut it down for knee surgery in the middle of July. A month later, his numbers are still impressive as ever. He's hitting .342 with an MLB-high .465 on-base percentage and a .604 slugging percentage. 

Votto's .444 weighted on-base average, essentially a measure of a player's overall offensive value, is tops in the major leagues, according to FanGraphs. True to form, Votto was also having an excellent defensive season.

The biggest knock against Votto is that maybe he's not as valuable as his numbers suggest. The Reds are 49-37 when he plays and 21-9 when he doesn't. Outside of a five-game losing streak earlier this month, they haven't skipped a beat in Votto's absence.

Still, there's no denying that Votto is going to have ground to make up in the NL MVP race either way when he returns to action. With Cabrera out of the picture, however, he'll have a lot less ground to make up in the race than he otherwise would have.

So, to recap, Cabrera's suspension doesn't effect McCutchen's standing in the NL MVP race all that much, but it's good news for Holliday, Wright, Braun and others, and excellent news for Votto and Posey (at least as far as his MVP chances are concerned).

Here's hoping there are no more cheaters in the race.

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