It seems the exclusionary rule applies to Major League Baseball. If evidence of doping is obtained, and the authorities do not comply with the required procedures, the evidence is excluded.

Braun insists he is innocent and he never doped. Major League Baseball argues that he did dope, he just avoided a suspension because of a technicality that they say Das misapplied to the case. Braun suggested in his news conference that the unnamed sample collector somehow tainted the result, and his surrogates have told reporters that there were problems with the samples.

So how did it go down?

The collection process would have played out this way: Braun would have urinated into a sample cup, in full view of the doping control officer or DCO. The DCO would have then taken the cup and poured the sample into two other sample cups, one marked “A,” and one marked “B.”

A lid would have been placed on both cups, with forensic chain-of-custody tape used to seal both cups, while Braun watched. The cups would have been turned upside down to show no leakage. A source with knowledge of the case and doping issues told “Outside the Lines” that if someone tried to lift the tape or tear it off, it would be reflected on the bottle because the tape sticks.

…

Braun said the man, inexplicably, took his sample back to his home that afternoon rather than take it to any number of FedEx/Kinko’s stores still open to take delivery of the samples. During his news conference, Braun stated the man didn’t drop off the samples until around 1 p.m. Monday, implying that a 44-hour window provided an opportunity for the sample to be tampered with. . . .

appropriate manner,” Manfred said in a statement Friday. “He handled Mr. Braun’s sample consistent with instructions issued by our jointly retained collection agency. The arbitrator found that those instructions were not consistent with certain language in our program, even though the instructions were identical to those used by many other drug programs — including the other professional sports and the World Anti-Doping Agency.”