Sveum hopes PEDs are finally out of the game

PHILADELPHIA -- While the baseball world watched and reacted to 13 players being suspended in connection to Major League Baseball's Biogenesis investigation Monday, the Cubs had the day off.

Nobody on their roster was part of the news, but Tuesday was the first time manager Dale Sveum had a chance to weigh in on Monday's rulings.

"You're glad it's all done with, now. You don't have to deal with the speculation and all that," Sveum said. "The penalties, because it's out of the realm of MLB or the players' union and stuff, they're going to have to take their medicine and see what happens. It's nice that the stuff behind the scenes is getting picked up and caught to keep everybody on an even playing field."

Alex Rodriguez, the biggest name related to Biogenesis, was issued a 211-game suspension, will appeal his suspension and played Monday night in Chicago against the White Sox on the South Side. The Cubs were out of town, as Sveum said he spent his off-day relaxing in Philadelphia.

Sveum spent time in the Majors from 1986-99. He said that it's now clear that performance-enhancing drugs were prevalent in the 1990s, and Sveum does not want more players to try to beat the system.

"I think everybody on the field for the most part, 99 percent of the players, want it cleaned up," Sveum said. "Somebody made a good point. [A player] was competing with one of these guys in Spring Training for a job, and got beat out, probably, mainly, because of the PEDs. Those are what people don't want to happen, when people are working their butt off and somebody else is cheating, to lose jobs over it."