Some of Major League Baseball's smartest and most prominent voices will address the pressing issues of the game when the Players Association holds its annual executive board meetings next week in La Jolla, Calif. The assembled players will discuss instant replay and scheduling problems and lay some early groundwork for the next collective bargaining talks, with the existing labor deal set to expire in 2016. They're also expected to nominate Tony Clark as the union's new executive director in place of Michael Weiner, who died last week of brain cancer at age 51.

Between the strategy sessions, lunches and watching the ocean waves roll in, Jhonny Peralta's four-year, $53 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals is virtually certain to come up in conversation.

Jhonny Peralta received a 50-game suspension in August after being among the players involved in the Biogenesis scandal. Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports

Maybe not Jhonny Peralta per se, but the concept Peralta represents -- that a player with a recent PED violation can be rewarded for bad behavior or a questionable moral compass with bags of money from one of baseball's signature franchises. Peralta certainly won't be the last player in the spotlight under these circumstances; he'll soon be joined by outfielder Nelson Cruz, who also received a 50-game suspension as part of the Biogenesis scandal and probably will make significantly more than $53 million when he signs later this offseason. Catcher Carlos Ruiz, who was suspended 25 games to begin last season after failing a second test for amphetamines, recently re-signed with the Philadelphia Phillies on a three-year, $26 million deal.

Without referencing specific signings, Clark acknowledged the topic is on the agenda.

"Our executive board meeting is designed to bring our player leadership together to discuss any number of issues of the day, and this issue is one that players have been concerned about and are looking forward to discussing as a group," Clark told ESPN.com. "We're going to do our best to make sure the players' voices are heard."

The inflammatory nature of the issue came to the forefront Sunday when Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brad Ziegler reacted to news of the Peralta signing with a provocative comment on Twitter. His sentiments were echoed by veteran reliever David Aardsma, and the debate quickly escalated.

It pays to cheat...Thanks, owners, for encouraging PED use "@JimBowdenESPNxm: Peralta - Cards agree to 4-year deal: http://t.co/rkpdAO3QaL" — Brad Ziegler (@BradZiegler) November 24, 2013

Apparently getting suspended for PED's means you get a raise. What's stopping anyone from doing it? #weneedtomakeachange — David Aardsma (@TheDA53) November 24, 2013

If 1,500-plus retweets are a sign that an observation has resonated with the general public, Ziegler clearly hit a nerve.

Opportunity versus opportunism

Players have always advocated and benefited from a free market system in which movement is based on supply, demand and the skills they bring to the table. But now the concept of unfettered movement is colliding with the players' desire to deter or (in a perfect world) rid the game of steroid use. It's a big enough challenge to preach the gospel of a "level playing field" without eight- and nine-figure profit motives getting in the way.

"I think it's a snapshot of what the issue has been for years," said Kansas City pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, who serves as one of the game's two MLB union reps along with outfielder Curtis Granderson. "Teams wouldn't bring on players who have tested positive if they didn't feel they could help the team. And players are willing to take the risks to improve their performance and get a contract that matches up with it. The players who are cheating are being penalized in the short term. But for the most part, from what we've seen recently, they have been rewarded in the long term.

"I don't cast the blame on the owners. I will always cast the blame on individual players for the decisions they make. But it's clear there are owners that don't necessarily care if players take steroids. There are players who don't care if they take steroids. And to some extent, there are probably fans that do not care. At the end of the day, I think what everybody wants is accountability."

Under typical circumstances, St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak might have spent the Peralta news conference fielding questions about the prudence of giving so much money to a 31-year-old shortstop with limited range in the field. But now he's dealing with questions about Peralta's character and the Cardinals' perceived willingness to lower their standards out of expediency. Mozeliak previously tackled the issue in 2009 when he hired Mark McGwire as St. Louis' hitting coach, so he was ready for the inevitable questions about Peralta. Among other things, Mozeliak said it's not the Cardinals' responsibility to be the morality "police" when they make baseball decisions.

A shared burden?

As players grapple with the issue, the dialogue has recently spread to embrace the idea of shared responsibility. Might teams send a message about steroid use and be more wary of rewarding PED users if they had to pay an additional premium in conjunction with big-ticket signings? One idea that's being bandied around among players involves taking a portion of the money that teams spend on convicted steroid users and funneling it toward PED education programs or some other worthwhile cause. But that feel-good concept is still in the formative stages.

Understandably, the idea may not develop much traction among the clubs, who already navigate a minefield of potential problems in signing PED users. The Cardinals knew they faced a fan backlash in signing Peralta, and also run the risk that his career numbers have been inflated by steroid use and could easily decline in coming years.

The Cardinals signed Peralta with a Biogenesis cloud hanging over him, but other clubs are seemingly blindsided by players signed in free agency or already under contract. Consider the Milwaukee Brewers. In April 2011, they signed left fielder Ryan Braun to a $105 million contract extension that takes him through the 2020 season. The Brewers committed to Braun with the expectation that he would compete for MVP awards and one day enter the Hall of Fame in a Milwaukee cap. Then Braun beat the rap in a controversial grievance in 2012 and accepted a 65-game suspension in July. Now he's damaged goods, hoping to rehabilitate his image while cold-calling season-ticket holders to apologize for his sins.

Braun's reputation has been so tarnished by PED use that the Brewers can't stick him on the cover of a pocket calendar or a season-ticket brochure without incurring anger from the fan base. He's marketing poison and a likely magnet for boos. And if his performance declines in coming years, there's no mechanism in place that would allow the team to void his contract because he flunked a drug test.