The Giants retired Barry Bonds' number; will the Milwaukee Brewers ultimately retire No. 8 in honor of Ryan Braun?

On Saturday, the San Francisco Giants retired the No. 25, famously worn by Barry Bonds, whose 762 home runs are the most in MLB history. Bonds, known for his otherworldly power and on-base acumen, is also associated with baseball’s dark late-'90s chapter of performance-enhancing drugs.

Though Bonds didn’t fail a PED test, the rampant speculation around his usage has kept an otherwise stone-cold lock for the Baseball Hall of Fame from receiving the votes he needs. He had 56.4 percent of the vote this past year and needs 75 percent within the next four years before he’s bumped off the ballot.

But the Giants’ willingness to recognize Bonds leads to an interesting question for the Brewers down the line: Will the organization ultimately decide to retire No. 8 in honor of Ryan Braun, who is certainly one of the best players in franchise history yet has his own PED history? MLB.com posted a story guessing which player will be the next retired number in each organization, and Braun came up, but the article acknowledged the trickiness.

Braun, who hit two home runs in his team's win over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, has been on fire since the All-Star Break.

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The case against retiring No. 8

Braun, of course, has his own dark chapter. He tested positive for elevated testosterone after the 2011 season but appealed his 50-game suspension and adamantly defended his innocence on the matter. He then became the first player to successfully win his appeal based on procedural shortcomings.

When Braun's name appeared on documents obtained by MLB in 2013 during an investigation of the Biogenesis of America clinic, Braun was suspended for the final 65 games of the 2013 season and, this time, accepted the penalty.

He was heavily criticized for his defiance in the wake of the initial test, including how he tarnished the name of the sample collector, Dino Laurenzi, and questioned the nature of the drug-testing program. Braun ultimately admitted to using PEDs during the latter stages of the 2011 season as he dealt with an injury.

It’s something that will always be part of Braun’s story, and he still hears boos on the road from opposing fans. With age as an understandable additional factor, he also hasn’t performed at the MVP level that characterized his career before the positive test. Then again, even including his brutal 2013 season, he has posted an .832 OPS and .343 on-base percentage in the years since – both highly respectable marks for a player over six seasons from ages 29-34.

From a purely statistical standpoint, it could be argued that Braun falls short of the “retired number” status, but it’s a tough strain. He’s fifth in career batting average as a Brewer (behind Jeff Cirillo, Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper and Kevin Seitzer), he’s eighth in career on-base percentage and third in slugging behind Prince Fielder and Richie Sexson. All of those placements could fall as he ages and continues his career in Milwaukee.

Some of the other stats, however, make him sound like a little bit more of a slam dunk.

The Brewers have only retired numbers of players who are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Braun’s candidacy for Cooperstown seems limited both by his overall production (borderline) and his connection to PEDs.

Although, perhaps the two most familiar names in Brewers history – Robin Yount and Paul Molitor – both had their numbers retired by the club before they were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Molitor’s No. 4 was retired in 1999, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004. Yount’s 19 was retired on 1994 shortly after the end of his 20-year career (all with the Brewers), and he went into the Hall of Fame in 1999.

Hank Aaron (44) also had his number retired shortly after the end of his career in 1976, long before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982. Rollie Fingers (34) was inducted and had his number retired in the same year, 1992.

The case for retiring No. 8

From a statistical standpoint, few Brewers have been as impactful.

Braun is already the franchise’s all-time home-run hitter (314) by more than 60 bombs. He’s third in doubles, third in runs, third in total bases, second in RBIs, third in stolen bases and fourth in hits. In all of those cases, the only players ahead of him are Yount or Molitor, with the exception of Cecil Cooper, who has 43 more hits than Braun and is probably going to get caught on that list.

Braun is the third player in franchise history to win an MVP award (in 2011, joining Fingers and Yount in that achievement – with Yount doing it twice). He’s one of two players to win Rookie of the Year (Pat Listach in 1992), and he’s won three Silver Sluggers (joining Cooper and Yount with the most in team history). His six All-Star appearances are the most for a Brewer.

Not only that, he was one of the centerpieces of the 2008 and 2011 playoff teams, the former of which became the first Brewers playoff qualifier in 26 seasons and the latter won a franchise-record 96 games and reached the NLCS.

Yes, the PED cloud potentially mitigates how impressive that 2011 season was, and maybe even the 2008 season, when he hit one of the most memorable home runs in franchise history on the final day of the regular season.

In the five years since his suspension was carried out, Braun has seemingly been a model clubhouse citizen. On the field, he had a very impressive 2016 season, when he posted a .903 OPS, .365 on-base percentage and swatted 30 homers.

His contract carries him through 2020 with a mutual option for 2021, and it seems somewhat likely that he will finish his career in a Brewers uniform, which would give him another hallowed distinction of playing his entire career with one organization.

It may also help for any player associated with PEDs if Bonds ultimately does make the Hall of Fame. Bonds has gone from 36.2 percent of the vote in 2013 to 44.3 in 2016 and 53.8 the following year, with a bit of a stagnation in his rise to 56.4 this past year. Roger Clemens is actually a little ahead at 57.3 percent.

It’s going to be a close call for both, but it would open the door for acceptance on other players, and Braun would certainly fall in that category, even if he may not ultimately post the numbers that would make him a surefire baseball Hall of Famer.

They've got to retire that number, don't they?

Ultimately, it comes down to PR. It’s hard to know where the Brewers will be in the years after Braun’s career ends – will they be willing to tackle a tricky public relations situation immediately? Will it be best to wait? Will there be a bit of a campaign to ingratiate Braun to those who remain upset with his actions post-2011?

Because while Braun won't have the same Herculean portfolio that Bonds has, it seems highly likely that Braun’s career ledger will call for the same action taken by other memorable Brewers greats like Molitor, Yount, Fingers and Aaron.