Major League Baseball will reportedly seek to suspend Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, and possibly 18 other players associated with an infamous Miami clinic that reportedly sold those players performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez and Braun may be suspended for 100 games, which is the penalty for a second drug-related offense.
ESPN reported on Tuesday that the clinic’s owner, Tony Bosch, has agreed to cooperate with MLB officials. Bosch, the founder of the Biogenesis firm, will reportedly name names within a week, and MLB will then announce the suspensions within two weeks.
According to ESPN, players who may face discipline from MLB include:
Rodriguez, Braun, [Melky] Cabrera, [Bartolo] Colon, [Yasmani] Grandal, Nelson Cruz, Francisco Cervelli, Jesus Montero, Jhonny Peralta, CesarPuello, Fernando Martinez, Everth Cabrera, Fautini de los Santos, Jordan Norberto, and a number of players who are either identified by code names or whose names appear in other documents…
Some players–like the Yankees’s Robinson Cano–may be implicated if the investigation finds a code name was used to identify him. ESPN also reports that Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez “will be scrutinized but possibly exonerated” because the substances he received from the clinic were legal.
Bosch, who had vehemently denied involvement in the past, has reportedly “reached an agreement this week to cooperate with MLB’s investigation.” As ESPN notes, though MLB has obtained plenty of documents regarding the matter, “without a sworn statement from Bosch that the records are accurate and reflect illicit interactions between the players and the self-described biochemist, the documents were little more than a road map.” Bosch has reportedly “pledged to provide anything in his possession that could help MLB build cases against the players” and will name names “within a week.’
The Miami New Times broke the story about Bosch’s clinic in January. The investigation came about because of the revelations in the New Times story.
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