NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball management has fired Shyam Das, the arbitrator who overturned Ryan Braun's drug suspension in February.
MLB informed Das and the players' association of its decision last week. Das had been baseball's permanent arbitrator since 1999, part of what technically is a three-man panel that also includes a representative of management and labor.
"Shyam is the longest-tenured panel chair in our bargaining relationship," union head Michael Weiner said. "For 13 years, from the beginning to the end of his tenure, he served the parties with professionalism and distinction."
Baseball's collective bargaining agreement says the arbitrator can be removed by the players' association or management at any time with written notice.
MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred declined comment, spokesman Pat Courtney said.
Das, a graduate of Harvard and Yale University Law School, also has been an arbitrator for the NFL since 2004 and is scheduled to hear a grievance in the New Orleans Saints bounty case on Wednesday.
The baseball situation, "does not impact his role at an arbitrator for our CBA," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.
Following a grievance hearing, Das decided in February to overturn the 50-game suspension of Braun for a positive drug test. Lawyers for the Milwaukee outfielder, the reigning NL MVP, argued that the collection procedures specified in baseball's drug agreement for the urine sample were not followed with Braun's sample last Oct. 1 because it was not immediately left at a Federal Express office.
The collector testified that because the sample was taken on a Saturday and could not have been shipped that day to the testing laboratory outside Montreal, he concluded the sample would be more secure at his home. He then took it to a FedEx office on the following Monday.
Baseball's drug agreement states that "absent unusual circumstances, the specimens should be sent by FedEx to the laboratory on the same day they are collected."
Management loudly and publicly disagreed with his decision.
The sides asked Das to hold off on issuing a written decision while they negotiated changes to the drug agreement.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press
