MLB to interview players implicated in Miami performance-enhancing drug scandal
Major League Baseball plans on interviewing all of the players accused of receiving performance-enhancing drugs from the Biogenesis clinic, though the league hopes first to obtain the documents that tied Alex Rodriguez and other major leaguers to human growth hormone and synthetic testosterone before moving forward with potential disciplinary action, sources told Yahoo! Sports.
League officials expect to travel to Florida in the coming days to discuss with Miami New Times editors and lawyers whether the newspaper, which broke the story Tuesday, will provide the league with the Biogenesis records implicating Rodriguez, Nelson Cruz, and Gio Gonzalez, as well as the previously suspended Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon and Yasmani Grandal.
If the newspaper does release the records to the league, not only could it bolster MLB's case when arguing for potential 50-game suspensions for Rodriguez, Cruz and Gonzalez, it could provide an ever greater look at the scope of Biogenesis owner and alleged peddler Anthony Bosch's operation – and add more names beyond the sullied six.
New Times editor-in-chief Chuck Strouse told Yahoo! Sports the newspaper chose not to include all of the names of major league players in Bosch's ledger because it couldn't confirm enough details to link them to PED use. Were the New Times to share such records, a league source said MLB's Department of Investigations would begin looking into players beyond those accused in the report.
[Related: Yankees star Alex Rodriguez joins list of disgraced athletes]
"We will most certainly take that request very seriously," Strouse said. "We're in the business of reporting news. And we're also in the business of justice. I don't know what we would do if they asked. We're talking with our lawyers, and we don't want to stand in the way of any investigation. We'll have to determine it when it comes to that."
The New Times has posted online all of Bosch's hand-written mentions of Rodriguez and Gonzalez, both of whom have denied knowing Bosch. The records tie Rodriguez to human growth hormone, synthetic testosterone creams and lozenges, insulin-like growth factor and DHEA, all of which are banned by the league. One page of the records mentions Gonzalez's name alongside "pink cream" – a testosterone-laden balm, according to Bosch's records – and the Washington Post reported Gonzalez trained this offseason with Jimmy Goins, a University of Miami strength coach also allegedly given PEDs by Bosch.
[Also: Aging Yankees approaching expiration date]
The newspaper expects to dump an even bigger trove of documents online in the coming days, though MLB would prefer to leave the Miami area with hard copies of the box full of evidence delivered by a former Biogenesis employee.
"We want to do what's right," Strouse said.
The DOI, established by MLB after George Mitchell suggested its creation in his report on steroids in the game, has camped agents in Miami in recent months, hoping to connect the suspensions of Cabrera, Colon and Grandal. DOI investigators had not tied the other players to Biogenesis during their inquiry.
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