Ryan Braun Keeping MVP Award Due to MLB's Foolishness

Ryan Braun will keep his MVP award because Major League Baseball was too shortsighted to keep this kind of situation from occurring.

In the aftermath of Braun's positive test coming to light there was speculation that there would be a re-vote for the MVP award, but that is not going to happen.

Bill Shaikin of the LA Times reported that the Baseball Writers Association of America, which votes for MLB's postseason awards, has no plans of stripping the award from Braun.

Why They Won't Re-Vote

BBWAA secretary-treasurer and award administrator Jack O'Connell gave Shaikin the answer when asked if they would strip Braun of his title. O'Connell:

"

I got the same question after Ken Caminiti came clean about his steroids usage, and whether we should give the 1996 MVP award instead to Mike Piazza. The answer is no.

We did not strip Alex Rodriguez of the 2003 MVP when it was learned later he used PEDs while in Texas.

The voters used the information they had at the time of the election. I don't see how we can change that.

"

The vote is final. If they decided to strip Braun of his award now, it would open up the precedence to strip others of their awards, and that would be a very slippery slope. There is an endless list of questions about who deserves an MVP as time goes on.

Granted, this is an unusual and unfortunate set of circumstances, but once a door is opened a crack it can easily swing wide.

This kind of scenario does not need to be handled by stripping an award after it was given—it needs to be handled before it ever gets to the vote.

MLB's Folly

Major League Baseball needs to prevent this from happening.

Braun's positive test came during the playoffs. This came after the vote for the MVP took place. However, the announcement of the results, did not happen until well after the playoffs on November 22nd.

In light of this new situation, baseball needs to adjust this process. The vote cannot take place until all testing information is available.

The fact that they allowed an MVP to be announced when they knew he had failed a test for a banned substance in inexcusable, and it can never happen again.