FORT MYERS, Fla. -- When Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun became the first player to successfully overturn a drug-related suspension on Thursday, professional baseball players took notice.

After a voluntary workout for Red Sox position players Friday at the team’s spring training facility, a few reacted to the reversal of Braun’s 50-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance.

“He won the battle, so it’s a good thing,” said Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz was more in-depth with his thoughts on the situation after the pitchers’ workouts.

“I didn’t know about it until this morning,” Buchholz said. “I think it’s good. He’s one of the big faces in baseball, obviously with the MVP last year, and when it happened it was a shock to everybody because everybody only has good things to say about him. I’m glad for him that they discontinued that whole case and he’s not going to be serving 50 and he’ll be able to play.

“Obviously he’s going to be faced with a lot of questions, but I think it’s better to be faced with questions while you’re playing and helping the team rather than being suspended for a third of the season. I think it’s good. I’m glad for him.”

Major League Baseball and the players’ association agreed that players for the first time will be tested for human-growth hormones via blood tests, along with the normal urine tests for other performance-enhancing substances.

“I think it might help the players a little bit, knowing that things can get messed up,” Buchholz said. “Obviously a positive test is a positive test in most cases, but you can have some cases that could be beneficial to the player whenever a positive test ruled.”

Buchholz said he’s not opposed to the new testing.

“It’s something else out there to make guys not want to do it,” Buchholz said. “Obviously nobody wants to do anything to suspend their season or hurt their team. ... Giving blood is a little bit different than a urine sample, and if they happen to come in one day and you’re the starting pitcher and you’re giving two vile of blood that could mess up your whole routine and the way you feel.

“Once it gets under way for a couple of years, I think they’ll have a pretty good way to do it and be able to schedule it around what guys have to do.”

Red Sox pitcher Andrew Miller is active in the players’ association and explained that both sides were involved in heavy discussions about testing.

“Honestly, the players, it’s amazing, everybody wants a level playing field, everybody. We’re so tired of it,” Miller said. “I came up at the tail end of it, in 2006, when that offseason the Mitchell Report came out. People were tired of that. I think yes, players were defensive, probably, for so long, especially when Donald Fehr fought it, said we don’t want any testing, it’s privacy.

“Guys wanted it, but when you’re talking about testing -- like the HGH thing. Say 1 in 10,000 is a false positive. Well, if you’re testing 1,000 tests a year in 10 years you’ve done 10,000 guys. Nobody wants to be a false positive.”

Miller added that he doesn’t know any specifics of the Braun case, but said it’s a clear indication that the appeal process works.

“I know when it first leaked out that he failed a test, everybody said nobody has ever overturned a MLB drug test,” Miller said. “It gives you some peace of mind knowing that if there’s something fluky or somebody screws up then you can defend yourself.”

Red Sox players’ association rep Daniel Bard said he’s not against the blood tests.

“They already take blood from us, for other health reasons,” he said. “So they took one extra vial. So that was nothing. Honestly, I heard a lot of guys saying they like it better than the urine test. Because the urine test, some guys are sitting there an hour after the game because they can’t go. Blood test, close your eyes and get it over with.”

During his press conference on Friday afternoon at the team’s spring training facility in Arizona, Braun said the truth was on his side.

“I’m sure Ryan Braun is glad he had his union,” Miller said.