MLB’s chief information officer and executive vice president of administration, John McHale Jr., will be hearing Chase Utley‘s appeal next Monday, October 19. McHale hears appeals of suspensions that pertain to on-field matters. That means no PEDs — more brawls, beanballs and the occasional foreign substance.

Judging by McHale’s track record, Utley can expect a fair shot. McHale has shown he’ll side with either a player or the league — or somewhere in between — in spite of the obvious potential for a conflict of interest with his employer.

A brief history of McHale’s prominent rulings seems appropriate.

McHale’s most recent decision related to a suspension appears to have come in June. Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Will Smith had his 8-game ban for using a foreign substance reduced to six games by a panel including McHale and MLB executives Joe Garagiola and Kasey Sanossian.

Sometimes, McHale will overturn a suspension entirely. This happened twice in 2010.

In July of that year, Atlanta Braves pitcher Jonny Venters had his four-game suspension wiped out by McHale. Venters threw a pitch that hit then-Milwaukee Brewers slugger Prince Fielder in the back. He was cleared of any malicious intent during a 90-minute hearing in which Braves officials and coaches spoke on the pitcher’s behalf.

Pitcher Cliff Lee was ejected, and subsequently suspended five games, when he threw a pitch over a batter’s head in a 2010 spring training game. Lee, who was pitching for the Seattle Mariners at the time, cited his foot surgery a month earlier and a strained abdominal muscle suffered during the game as reasons for a possible lack of command that led to the errant pitch. According to the report (linked), MLB did not provide a previous case of a five-game suspension being completely dropped.

Dropping Utley’s two-game ban, then, has plenty of precedent, even if there is no specific precedent of disciplining a player for sliding into a base.

There are also instances of McHale siding with MLB entirely, such as Boston Red Sox pitcher Brandon Workman in 2014 (six games for throwing at a player’s head) and David Wells in 2005 (six games for bumping an umpire). There are many more instances of an appeal reaching McHale’s desk, then being dropped by the suspended player.

McHale is also reportedly a key player in MLB’s pending decision to reinstate Pete Rose.