In 2012 Melky Cabrera was caught using PEDs and suspended from the San Francisco Giants, who released him after the 2012 season. Cabrera signed a 2 year, $16 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays for 2013 and 2014. While Cabrera did not get to play in the World Series, a $16 million contract probably more than made up for it for Cabrera.

Bortolo Colon also was caught using PEDs in 2012 and suspended from the Oakland Athletics for 50 games. Colon signed a $3 million contract with the Athletics for 2013, and if he earned them, incentives could increase the total value to as much as $6 million.

So far this year, Ryan Braun has been suspended for using PEDs and we are anticipating the announcement of more suspensions. It is clear to me, however, that the suspensions are not going to drive out the use of PEDs in Major League Baseball.

The problem is that right now the use of PEDs is viewed as a player problem rather than a team, player, and MLB problem. As long as there are teams willing to give big deals to players even after they have been caught and suspended, the risks are simply not large enough to cause players to avoid the temptation.

If you think about it, with the current situation teams could almost want players to use PEDs and be caught as it could allow the teams to acquire talent at a lower cost. Braun currently has a $51 million contract with Milwaukee. Most likely his next contract is going to be for less than that, the question is how much less?

If the goal is to eliminate PEDs from baseball, then clearly there needs to be a stronger deterrent that involves BOTH players and teams. Players probably need to be suspended for a whole year on the first violation, life time afterward; teams that have a major league player caught with PEDs should lose the ability to sign free agents for one year.

• History has also shown that legacy and the risk of not getting in to the Hall of Fame are not a significant deterrent. It didn't deter players who could legitimately think they are HOF material, and for the most part the players getting caught never expect to be in the HOF anyway.

Until using PEDs becomes too painful for both players and teams, their use is going to continue. Right now the players currently facing suspensions are only going to lose income for 50 games, and most likely they will sign as good of a deal they have today in the future. In short, for some, there is still no financial real reason to NOT use PEDs.