Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are in talks about changing the drug-testing policy in the collective-bargaining agreement, representatives of the union and the league said.
“We have been having conversations with the clubs about whether any modifications to the drug agreement are appropriate,” said Steve Fehr, outside counsel to MLBPA, during a speech at the Sports Lawyers Association’s annual conference in Baltimore earlier this month.
MLB chief legal counsel Thomas Ostertag, speaking at the same conference, said, “We do need and want a better deal at the major league level for drug testing. There are discussions with the union. … We are hopeful those discussions will lead to an improved program and one that can be culminated and announced in the very near future.”
Neither Ostertag nor Fehr described the focus of the talks or said specifically what drugs were being discussed, but their comments came as part of a discussion of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.
Major League Baseball and the players union have been under pressure from some members of Congress to toughen up the testing policy for performance-enhancing drugs.
During a March Senate Commerce Committee hearing on drugs in sports, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told MLBPA chief Donald Fehr: “Your failure to commit to addressing this issue straight on and immediately will motivate this committee to search for legislative remedies. I don’t know what they are. But I can tell you, and the players you represent, the status quo is not acceptable.”
Donald Fehr, who is Steve Fehr’s brother, indicated last week that the talks may concern some “changes in the law,” but he would not elaborate. “I have said we have been in discussions with Major League Baseball and when there is something to announce, we will.”
Major League Baseball officials last week declined to elaborate on the talks. “I have no comment on the status of my discussions with the players association,” said Rob Manfred, MLB’s chief labor lawyer.
Under the current agreement, players are tested twice a year for steroids the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has deemed illegal, according to mlb.com. Players are given an unannounced test and tested again five to seven days later.
