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REPORT: MLB Preparing to Suspend Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Others in Biogenesis Scandal

By Michael Engel

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Apr 23, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun (8) during his at bat during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

In late January, a list of names including Ryan Braun, Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, and Yasmani Grandal and others showed up linking baseball players to the Biogenesis clinic in Miami, an alleged supplier of performance enhancing drugs.

The story was first reported by the Miami New Times and since, baseball has undertaken steps to talk to players and learn their involvement with the clinic, going so far as to try to purchase and sue for records.

Late Tuesday afternoon, John Buccigross of ESPN tweeted that MLB was seeking to suspend players implicated in the scandal after Tony Bosch, the director of Biogenesis, agreed to cooperate with baseball.

Possible players who could be suspended include:

More names could be included as the investigation expands. The full report by T.J. Quinn, Pedro Gomez, and Mike Fish says that the league might seek a 100 game suspension for Rodriguez, Braun and others who previously denied involvement.

The timeline:

– January 31: Miami News Times reports on original story involving files, notebooks, and payment records surfacing with players names. Dr. Gary Wadler, formerly of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said that “in general, almost every drug these records describe coming from this clinic is well-known in the world of illegal doping.”

Rodriguez and Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals denied any involvement after publication of the article. Gonzalez does not seem to  be implicated in this new round of investigations.

– March 22: Baseball sues Bosch and the clinic for “unspecified damages” and in order to obtain records that the Miami News Times would not supply. MLB contended that the clinic knowingly solicited players to violate the league’s collective bargaining agreement and the drug prevention program.

Buster Olney listed testosterone, human growth hormone, and human chorionic gonadotropin, a fertility drug that had been reportedly used by Manny Ramirez.

– April 12: MLB purchases documents from a former Biogenesis employee. At the same time, ESPN reported that an unnamed player was also trying to purchase documents, supposedly for the purpose of destroying them, prompting the league to act to ensure they had access to the records.

– April 23: Some of the documents end up being pitched as collector’s items, a bizarre twist in an already bizarre story.

– April 29: Bosch claims that allegations that Biogenesis engaged in distribution of PEDs are false. He declines to mention any names and contends that he’s done nothing wrong.

Bosch also declined to confirm that he had seen any baseball players or treated any players at the clinic.

– June 4: The ESPN Outside the Lines report states that Bosch will now cooperate with Major League Baseball and will start “naming names”. Sources for the report say that Bosch agreed to provide any materials requested of him to MLB.

T.J. Quinn tweets that Bosch was pressured by the lawsuit and wanted it dropped. Quinn added that baseball will seek 100 game suspensions for Rodriguez and Braun because of dual violations – by seeing Bosch in the first place as well as lying about it after.

Expect appeals of any attempted suspensions. It’s also unclear how baseball can suspend without test results, so that will be another interesting aspect of the investigation. Quinn pointed out some other questions that have yet to be answered.

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