JAWS and the 2026 Corridor of Fame Poll: Ryan Braun

The next article is a part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing have a look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2026 Corridor of Fame poll. For an in depth introduction to this 12 months’s poll, and different candidates within the collection, use the instrument above; an introduction to JAWS may be discovered right here. For a tentative schedule and an opportunity to fill out a Corridor of Fame poll for our crowdsourcing challenge, see right here. All WAR figures discuss with the Baseball Reference model until in any other case indicated.

Together with Prince Fielder, who debuted in mid-2005 and joined the lineup as an everyday the next season, Ryan Braun was a transformative determine within the historical past of the Brewers. Together with its one-off season because the Seattle Pilots, the franchise made the playoffs simply twice in its first 38 campaigns, again in 1981 and ’82. With Braun — the membership’s first-round choose in 2005 — bopping 34 homers in simply 113 video games en path to NL Rookie of the 12 months honors in ’07, the Brewers completed above .500 for the primary time in 15 years, and the subsequent 12 months, with Braun transferring from third base (the place he was horrible) to left discipline and making his first of six All-Star groups, they made the playoffs because the Nationwide League Wild Card. They’d go on to qualify for the playoffs 4 extra instances throughout Braun’s profession, with division titles and journeys to the Nationwide League Championship Sequence in 2011 and ’18, although they fell simply wanting journeys to the World Sequence.

Braun received NL MVP honors in 2011 and went on a memorable October run earlier than the Brewers had been eradicated, then led the league in house runs whereas ending as runner-up within the voting the next 12 months. He amassed not less than 30 homers and 30 steals in each seasons, however by that time, the legitimacy of these accomplishments was in query. In December 2011, lower than a month after he beat out Matt Kemp for MVP, Main League Baseball suspended him for 50 video games for testing constructive for elevated ranges of testosterone, later found to be artificial; the pattern had been taken after the Brewers’ first postseason recreation. With a spokesman citing “extremely uncommon circumstances,” “Ryan’s full innocence,” “impeccable character and no earlier historical past” of violations, Braun challenged the suspension. In February 2012, an arbitration panel overturned it because of a technicality involving the delay between when he submitted his pattern and when the collector, a person named Dino Laurenzi Jr., despatched it to the lab.

Each that reversal and Braun’s following actions — smearing Laurenzi each publicly and privately, even alleging that the collector was anti-Semitic (Braun’s father is Jewish, and Braun publicly embraced his Jewish heritage) — are with out parallel in MLB’s lengthy steroid saga. What’s extra, Braun’s indignation and proclamations of innocence turned out to be a complete sham; in 2013, he was found to have acquired PEDs by way of the Biogenesis Clinic, and earned a 65-game suspension. Thereafter, he publicly apologized, made amends with Laurenzi, and did his finest to rehabilitate his picture and display stable citizenship by persevering with his involvement in a number of charitable organizations; he even earned a number of nominations for the Roberto Clemente Award. Whereas he continued to play a supporting position on some excellent Brewers groups (and a few not-so-good ones), age and accidents restricted his availability and effectiveness.

Braun performed his final recreation in 2020, two months shy of his thirty seventh birthday, although he waited practically a 12 months to formalize his retirement. Whereas he received again many followers and completed with sturdy price stats, his early exit left him with profession totals that probably received’t sway Corridor of Fame voters — or not less than those prepared to miss his a number of PED transgressions. He’s left a difficult legacy, one which fairly clearly received’t finish in Cooperstown.

Ryan Joseph Braun was born on November 17, 1983 in Mission Hill, California. His father, Joe Braun, was born in Tel Aviv, a descendent of Holocaust survivors, and emigrated to the US when he was seven. He labored as an insurance coverage claims adjuster whereas his mom, Diane Braun, was a brewer — actually — for Anheuser-Busch, “including the hops and on by way of fermenting and the entire bit,” as she defined to the Los Angeles Instances in 2008.

Each Joe and Diane performed important roles within the baseball upbringing of their youngsters, Ryan and Steve (b. 1985), who would go on to spend three seasons within the Brewers minor league system earlier than retiring because of imaginative and prescient issues. Joe coached each of his sons throughout the years they performed Little League collectively and threw batting follow to the boys in a full-sized batting cage that Diane — who herself grew up in a home beforehand owned by Hank Greenberg — constructed of their yard when Ryan was 14 and Steve 12.

At Granada Hills Excessive Faculty — the identical faculty that produced Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer John Elway in addition to main leaguers Gary Matthews Jr. and Kameron Loe, Braun’s future teammate in Milwaukee — Braun was anticipated to play for the junior varsity crew as a freshman. When the varsity second baseman failed to point out up on time on Opening Day, although, Braun was plucked out of sophistication and inserted into the lineup; he hit a single, a double, and a homer, capturing the eye of scouts readily available to look at Loe, then a senior. “He was the one child within the recreation who didn’t have his title on his again, and all of the scouts had been like, ‘Who is that this man?’” Joe Braun recalled in 2011.

Braun lettered all 4 years at Granada, the place he primarily break up his time between shortstop and designated hitter, incomes All-Metropolis honors 3 times and setting a college document for house runs. Thought-about one of many nation’s high prep shortstops and a powerful pupil as well, he priced himself out of being drafted out of highschool, and turned down athletic scholarships to Stanford and College of California-Berkeley in favor of a full educational scholarship to the College of Miami. In 2003, Baseball America named him Freshman of the 12 months and a first-team Freshman All-American. A rib cage pressure curtailed his sophomore season and led to struggles within the Cape Cod League that summer season, however as a junior, after shifting from shortstop to 3rd base, he made BA’s All-American Staff and was the Atlantic Coast Convention Baseball Participant of the 12 months and a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award. The Brewers chosen him with the fifth choose of the 2005 draft, after Justin Upton, Alex Gordon (one other newcomer on this poll), Jeff Clement, and Ryan Zimmerman, and signed him for a $2.45 million bonus.

Braun started his skilled profession with Rookie-level Helena of the Pioneer League, however he performed simply 10 video games there earlier than being promoted to A-level West Virginia of the South Atlantic League; between the 2 stops, he hit a mixed .352/.393/.632 with 10 house runs in 47 video games earlier than a proper elbow pressure ended his season two weeks early. Baseball America positioned him forty ninth on its Prime 100 Prospects listing the next spring, praising his five-tool means and evaluating his strategy and energy to Pat Burrell, who preceded him as a 3rd baseman at Miami (1996–98). The publication did specific concern relating to Braun’s “less-than-textbook swing,” including, “He may use extra stability and a extra constant, much less exaggerated load.” BA additionally instructed Braun’s future may lay in an outfield nook slightly than at third base. He hit .289/.357/.514 with 22 homers in 118 video games break up between Excessive-A Brevard County and Double-A Huntsville in 2006, performed within the Futures Recreation, starred within the Arizona Fall League, and moved to twenty sixth within the Prime 100.

Braun hit an absurd .342/.418/.701 with 10 homers in 34 video games at Triple-A Nashville in 2007 earlier than being referred to as as much as the Brewers, who had bolted from the gate to 28-19. Along with his arrival, they abruptly had an all-homegrown infield of gamers 24 or youthful: Fielder at first base, Rickie Weeks Jr. at second, J.J. Hardy at brief, and Braun at third. Debuting on Might 25 towards the Padres, Braun went 0-for-3 towards Greg Maddux, however smacked a two-run double off Doug Brocail for his first hit after Maddux departed; the subsequent evening, Braun went 3-for-4 with a solo house run off Justin Germano.

Whereas the Brewers had their share of ups and downs — together with a 20-34 skid in July and August — they nosed throughout the end line with an 83-79 document, their first above .500 since 1992, however completed two video games behind the first-place Cubs within the NL Central. Braun completely raked, hitting .324/.370/.634 (154 OPS+) with 34 homers and 15 steals. He led the NL in slugging share even with 10 phantom at-bats. The one knock on his efficiency was dreadful protection — he made 26 errors, falling beneath the Hobson Line with an .895 fielding share in addition to a jaw-dropping -32 DRS, tied for the second-lowest DRS for the reason that metric’s inception in 2003 — that restricted him to 2.0 WAR. He beat out Troy Tulowitzki (chosen seventh in that very same 2005 draft) by simply two factors for Rookie of the 12 months honors.

Throughout his rookie season, Braun’s hyperlinks to Judaism captured the eye of publications such because the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Herald Voice, and The Ahead. He took on the nickname “The Hebrew Hammer,” beforehand bestowed upon Fifties slugger Al Rosen, and in June 2007 instructed the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “Being Jewish is one thing I take nice pleasure in. There aren’t too many Jewish athletes which have achieved success on the highest stage, so it’s one thing I’m very pleased with.” Amongst these publications taking curiosity in his heritage, questions abounded as to whether or not he would play on Yom Kippur (September 22), Judaism’s holiest vacation, or would sit out a recreation, as predecessors equivalent to Greenberg, Sandy Koufax, and Shawn Inexperienced had achieved. In the long run, he selected to play, explaining to the Journal-Sentinel, “I don’t actually have a good time the (Jewish) holidays so it received’t be a lot of a problem with me. Rising up half-Jewish, half-Catholic, I’ve by no means actually celebrated one vacation over the opposite.”

Braun took up residence in left discipline in 2008, performed above-average protection (7 DRS) and confirmed that his offense was no fluke. He hit .285/.335/.553 (130 wRC+) with 4.6 WAR whereas rating fourth within the NL in house runs (34) and fifth in slugging share. He signed an eight-year, $45 million extension (by way of 2015) in Might, and was voted to start out in left discipline on the NL All-Star crew in July. Like so many different Brewers, he slumped in September; the crew even fired supervisor Ned Yost with 12 video games remaining within the common season. Nonetheless, the Brewers went 92-70 and claimed the NL Wild Card on the final day of the season, their first playoff berth since 1992. Braun went 5-for-16 with a pair of doubles within the Division Sequence towards the Phillies, however the Brewers fell in 4 video games. After the season, he positioned third within the NL MVP voting.

Although the Brewers slipped beneath .500 in each 2009 and ’10, Braun continued to raise his recreation. He hit .320/.386/.551 (146 OPS+) with 32 house runs in 2009, main the NL with 203 hits and cracking the highest 10 in batting common, slugging share, and WAR (6.2), then adopted up with a .304/.365/.501 (131 OPS+) season with 5.7 WAR. He was voted into the All-Star lineup in each years, shoehorned into proper discipline in 2009, whereas Raúl Ibañez began in left.

In April 2011, Braun and the Brewers agreed to a five-year, $105 million extension, placing him below contract with the crew by way of 2020, with a mutual choice for 2021; $18 million of his wage was deferred. Braun went on to set profession highs in WAR (7.7) and OPS+ (166) whereas hitting .332/.397/.597 with 33 homers and 33 steals, turning into the second Brewer to affix the 30/30 membership, after Tommy Harper in 1970. The Brewers set a franchise document with 96 wins whereas capturing the NL Central, and so they beat the Diamondbacks in a five-game Division Sequence earlier than falling to the Cardinals in a six-game NLCS. Braun went on a rampage throughout the postseason, hitting a mixed .405/.468/.714 with two house runs and 10 RBI in 11 video games, and accumulating a number of hits in six of them. He tallied three apiece within the first two NLDS contests, one among them a two-run first-inning homer in Recreation 2 off Daniel Hudson. Within the first inning of the NLCS opener, he hit a two-run shot off Jaime García, then added a two-run double towards him within the fifth, keying a 9-6 win.

Whereas the MVP voting came about earlier than the postseason, Braun’s October run was nonetheless contemporary in thoughts when he narrowly beat out Kemp (who’d hit 39 homers and stolen 40 bases, with 8.0 WAR) for the award. Lower than a month later, nevertheless, MLB handed down its 50-game suspension, which Braun challenged. After arbitrator Shyam Das overturned the suspension on February 23, 2012, on the grounds that the testing protocol had not been adhered to due to the delay between the gathering of the urine pattern (on a Saturday) and the delivery to the testing facility (on the next Monday). Braun took a victory lap, proclaiming, “At present is for everyone who has ever been wrongly accused… The easy fact is that I’m harmless. The reality is all the time related and the reality prevailed.”

“I might guess my life this substance by no means entered my physique,” he added.

He continued to put it on thick after reporting to the Brewers’ spring coaching facility, smearing Laurenzi by telling reporters, “There have been plenty of issues that we realized in regards to the collector, in regards to the assortment course of, about the best way that your entire factor labored, that made us very involved and really suspicious about what may have truly occurred.”

With the matter seemingly behind him, Braun turned in one other stellar marketing campaign in 2012, hitting .319/.391/.595 with a league-leading 41 homers, 30 steals, a 158 OPS+ (third within the league) and 6.9 WAR (fifth); for the fourth time in 5 years, he began the All-Star Recreation. On September 16 at Miller Park, he hit the two hundredth house run of his profession, off the Mets’ Chris Younger. The Brewers, nevertheless, slumped to 83 wins and a third-place end.

On January 31, 2013, the Miami New Instances dropped a bombshell report implicating a number of main and minor league gamers, together with Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, and Nelson Cruz as having acquired performance-enhancing medicine from the Miami-based Biogenesis Clinic. The clinic’s chief, Anthony Bosch, had beforehand been linked to Manny Ramirez’s 2009 suspension for utilizing HCG, a compound usually used on the finish of steroid cycles. On February 5, Yahoo Sports activities’ Tim Brown and Jeff Passan reported that Braun’s title had surfaced within the clinic’s data, although it wasn’t listed subsequent to any particular PEDs. Braun mentioned that his attorneys had employed Bosch as a marketing consultant throughout his attraction, however as soon as MLB secured Bosch’s cooperation a number of months later, the slugger — who had already missed practically 4 weeks because of a nerve damage in his proper thumb — was in hotter water. Introduced with what an MLB supply described as “overwhelming” proof that he had used PEDs, Braun accepted a suspension protecting the ultimate 65 video games of the 2013 season. The hits stored coming; in August, Passan reported that in trying to rally help for his trigger amongst his friends, Braun “instructed gamers round baseball earlier than spring coaching 2012 that the person who collected his urine that examined constructive for artificial testosterone was anti-Semitic and a Chicago Cubs fan in an effort to assemble help all through the sport.” ESPN’s Buster Olney reported the allegations of anti-Semitism, as nicely. Between mendacity by way of his enamel in regards to the 2011 exams, impugning staff within the testing course of, and utilizing his faith as a defend, Braun had managed to discover a new low within the annals of baseball’s PED saga. Such chutzpah!

In an announcement on August 23, 2013, Braun defined that he had begun utilizing testosterone lozenges and a cream (which reportedly contained human progress hormone) whereas battling nagging accidents in 2011. He apologized for “some severe errors, each within the info I didn’t share throughout my arbitration listening to and the feedback I made to the press afterwards… For a very long time, I used to be in denial and satisfied myself that I had not achieved something incorrect.” He publicly apologized to Laurenzi, and in addition met with him privately over dinner on the collector’s house. Braun mentioned in November 2013, “We’ve made amends and I feel we’re each excited to have the ability to transfer ahead and put this behind us.”

Braun returned to the Brewers in 2014, this time with no consideration fielder, and a 30-year-old one at that. Along with his proper thumb nonetheless an issue, he hit .266/.324/.453 (113 OPS+) after tailing off drastically over the ultimate two months of the season. He rebounded to hit .285/.356/.498 (131 OPS+) with 25 house runs and three.4 WAR in 2015, making his ultimate All-Star crew. After transferring again to left discipline, he had his finest post-suspension season — his final actually good season — in 2016, batting .305/.365/.538 (135 OPS+) with 30 homers and 4.4 WAR.

The Brewers had been a fourth-place, sub-.500 crew in each of these seasons, the second of which was David Stearns’ first on the helm. By the point the overall supervisor’s rebuilding efforts had begun to bear fruit, Braun was again in left discipline, and a much less productive participant. From 2017–19, he hit for a 112 OPS+ whereas averaging 124 video games, 20 homers, and 1.1 WAR, with a left calf pressure and again points taking bites out of his enjoying time. Highlights equivalent to his three hundredth profession homer, off the Cubs’ John Lackey on September 8, 2017, had been fewer and additional between.

The Brewers went 96-67 in 2018, profitable the NL Central due to a 3-1 victory over the Cubs in a Recreation 163 tiebreaker; Braun added the insurance coverage run with an eighth-inning RBI single. He went 5-for-13 because the Brewers swept the Rockies within the Division Sequence, however simply 7-for-29 with two doubles and 9 strikeouts in a seven-game loss to the Dodgers within the NLCS. Milwaukee received 89 video games and claimed a Wild Card berth in 2019, then misplaced the Wild Card recreation as Josh Hader squandered a 3-1 lead within the eighth.

Braun hit simply .233/.281/.488 for a career-low 101 OPS+ in 2020, enjoying simply 39 video games throughout the pandemic-shortened season whereas lacking further time because of again and proper index finger accidents. The Brewers made the expanded playoffs regardless of a 29-31 document, however they misplaced a two-game Wild Card Sequence to the Dodgers. Braun went 0-for-2 within the first recreation earlier than leaving within the fifth inning, having apparently aggravated his again earlier within the recreation when he crashed into the padded wall whereas catching a fly ball. He sat out Recreation 2, and because it turned out, he by no means performed once more.

In late October, the Brewers declined their finish of a $15 million mutual choice, selecting as an alternative to pay Braun a $4 million buyout. It was the primary time he’d ever reached free company, however whereas he stayed in contact with the Brewers throughout the winter, paid a go to to their spring coaching facility, and continued to remain in form, he mentioned he wasn’t enthusiastic about enjoying. He declined overtures from each Staff USA and Staff Israel when it got here to taking part within the Summer time Olympics, which the pandemic had delayed by a 12 months. Lastly, on September 14, 2021, he formally introduced his retirement.

…

Braun was 29 years previous when he was suspended. To that time, he supplied sturdiness to go along with a package deal of energy, pace, and persistence; from 2008-12, he averaged 154 video games, 34 homers, 22 steals and 5.4 WAR whereas hitting for a 148 wRC+. Publish-suspension, he slipped to averages of 130 video games, 22 homers, 14 steals and a couple of.1 WAR per 12 months. That’s to not say that he was merely a product of no matter he was placing into his physique; it’s a fairly typical getting old sample.

It’s one which left him with too wanting a profession to attract severe consideration for the Corridor of Fame, even when one may put aside his PED suspension. Amongst Corridor of Fame place gamers who debuted after integration in 1947, solely Tony Oliva performed fewer video games than Braun’s 1,766. With 1,963 profession hits, Braun did come nearer to 2,000 than Oliva, the primary post-1960 growth participant elected to the Corridor with a complete beneath that. He’s additionally nearer to 2,000 than this poll’s Chase Utley (1,885) or Andruw Jones (1,917), each of whom are trending towards eventual election, however the distinction is that every of these gamers starred at tougher defensive positions, which helped them accrue not less than 15 extra WAR.

Whereas Braun has the Seventeenth-highest peak WAR amongst left fielders (38.8), he’s merely thirty first in profession WAR (47.2) and twenty fifth in JAWS (43.0), 10.5 factors beneath the usual. That’s nearer to the mark than present candidates Torii Hunter, Jimmy Rollins, or Omar Vizquel are at their respective positions, however none of them is getting elected by the writers, both; Rollins’ 18% was the best any of that trio acquired in 2025, whereas Hunter acquired only one vote greater than he wanted to stay eligible.

Although the Brewers and their followers seen Braun as somebody particular and handled his retirement announcement accordingly, I stay much less reverential. As somebody who defended Braun on the grounds of due course of and breaches of confidentiality — foundational requirements for a good and purposeful drug testing program — each at Baseball Prospectus, after his 2011 suspension was introduced, and once more in 2013, when MLB’s leaks throughout the Biogenesis investigation painted an image of a league overzealously pursuing particular person stars with out having demonstrated their guilt, I’m a kind of folks described in Braun’s confessional assertion, one among “[t]hose who put their necks out for me [who] have been embarrassed by my conduct.”

I suppose that merely places me in the identical boat as a earlier era of reporters who felt betrayed by the likes of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and different stars after their PED misdeeds had been revealed. I haven’t shied away from disagreeing with these voters in my annual Corridor of Fame protection, the place I differentiate between PED allegations that date to the “Wild West” period earlier than the sport’s testing-and-suspension routine was launched, and those who got here after the purpose at which MLB and the union started cracking down, however I perceive their ire.

I need to admit that I’m slightly shocked Braun has already acquired three votes from among the many first 25 ballots revealed in Ryan Thibodaux’s tracker. I can perceive voting for Bonds and Clemens (I did so in 2021 and ’22, my first two years with a poll), and whereas I haven’t voted for Ramirez and Rodriguez as a result of their infractions crossed into the testing period, I can grasp why a voter would come with them on a performance-only foundation or as a thumb within the eye of MLB’s bungling of its PED points. I can’t, nevertheless, grasp why a voter would acknowledge a a lot lesser participant, one who tried to burn the entire drug testing regime to the bottom, mendacity repeatedly in public whereas veering nearer to bicycle owner Lance Armstrong’s organized bullying of teammates and testers than anybody else suspended by MLB. Sure, Rodriguez waged his personal scorched-earth battle towards suspension by submitting lawsuits towards commissioner Bud Selig, the gamers union, and a Yankees crew physician, however all of these felt like determined diversions slightly than credible, vindictive defenses. In addition to, Rodriguez would clear the bar for any performance-only voter, whereas Braun’s numbers fall wanting the usual.

The reality is, I can higher perceive why voters can be prepared to miss Rodriguez’s conduct than Braun’s, and past the efficiency facet, the opposite matter that also sticks within the craw of this Jewish scribe (a descendent of a household equally decimated by the Holocaust) — and that separates Braun from Rodriguez — is his reported invocation of anti-Semitism. The listing of Jewish ballplayers isn’t an extended one within the grand scheme, however the annals are stuffed with tales of Jewish followers celebrating the likes of Greenberg and Koufax as they publicly acknowledged their heritage. Braun tapped into that goodwill, proclaiming himself “extraordinarily proud to be a task mannequin for younger Jewish youngsters.” Crying wolf as he did appears like a very acute betrayal of the legacy he embraced.

I may belabor this for one more thousand phrases — I went deeper on some of these things in the retirement piece 4 years in the past — however it’s going to suffice to say that Braun is the best NO vote for me on this poll; I didn’t want half a second to contemplate him. It’s good he apologized, and I’m glad he did issues in Milwaukee that put him again within the good graces of Brewers followers, however with regards to whether or not he belongs in Cooperstown, as generations of Jaffes earlier than me would say in Yiddish, “Feh.”