Report: MLB expected to suspend Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun among others after All-Star break
Ryan Braun, 2011 National League MVP, reportedly has refused to answer questions from MLB investigators regarding his connection to the Biogenesis PED scandal. (Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
Major League Baseball is expected to suspend as many as 20 players including Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez sometime after next week's All-Star break, according to "Outside the Lines."
Braun, the 2011 National League Most Valuable Player, has repeatedly denied using performance-enhancing drugs and refused to answer questions during a recent meeting with Major League Baseball about his connection to Tony Bosch and the Biogenesis clinic in Miami, sources told "Outside the Lines."
From ESPN:
The meeting took place June 29, a source said, and is one of several that MLB has conducted with players connected to the clinic. A source said Alex Rodriguez has not been interviewed, but a meeting is expected to take place within the week.
Major League Baseball began investigating players linked to a Miami New Times report on illegal PEDs obtained through the clinic run by Bosch, and began building cases against the players last month after Bosch agreed to cooperate with investigators.
More from the ESPN report:
Bosch's attorneys have met repeatedly with MLB officials over the past month, turning over numerous documents to substantiate his connection to the players named in company documents, sources have said.
While sources would not detail what Bosch has turned over, he was expected to provide phone, text, email and other records.
LEMIRE: Fallout from Biogenesis may mar second half of season
In 2005, Major League Baseball and the players' union agreed to 50-game suspensions for first offenses of the league's drug police including steroid and amphetamine use, increasing to 100 games for a second offense and a lifetime ban for a third. "Outside the Lines" sources say the league is considering 100-game suspensions for Braun and Rodriguez even though neither player has been banned for a first offense. From the report:
The question is the length of the suspensions. The argument, one source said, would be that they -- and possibly other players -- committed multiple offenses by receiving performance-enhancing drugs from Bosch and by lying about it.
Sources said the commissioner's office was considering 100-game bans for Braun and Rodriguez, the punishment for a second offense, even though neither player was previously suspended for violating MLB's drug policy.
