MLB

Report links A-Rod to PEDs again; Yankees slugger denies recent usage

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No, this isn’t a reprint: Alex Rodriguez is in hot water once again, thanks to explosive, newly published allegations yesterday that he has purchased illegal performance-enhancing drugs each of the prior four years.

The allegations, if confirmed by Major League Baseball, could lead to a suspension for the eternally controversial slugger.

The Yankees, as per baseball protocol, will take no action until MLB completes its investigation. Once that occurs, according to a source, the Yankees will look into what they can do, if anything, to escape the five years and $114 million remaining on Rodriguez’s contract.

According to MLB’s Basic Agreement, a team cannot void a contract due to a drug suspension. Their best chance, albeit remote, to rid themselves of the A-Rod albatross would be to prove he defrauded the team in some form.

The A-Rod camp quickly emerged yesterday with a categorical denial of the story published by the Miami New Times.

The newspaper obtained supposed records from Biogenesis, a South Florida clinic that has closed and was owned by Anthony Bosch, the son of a prominent Florida physician who was linked to Manny Ramirez when baseball suspended Ramirez for illegal PED usage in 2009. According to the report, the records refer to illegal PED purchases made by Rodriguez, as well as Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, Nelson Cruz, Gio Gonzalez and Yasmani Grandal. Rodriguez confessed in 2009 to using illegal PEDs while with the Rangers from 2001 through 2003 and has repeatedly said he hasn’t used anything since.

Sitrick and Company, a crisis management public relations firm, issued a statement on Rodriguez’s behalf that read: “The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true. Alex Rodriguez was not Mr. Bosch’s patient, he was never treated by him and he was never advised by him. The purported documents referenced in the story — at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez — are not legitimate.”

A spokesman added: “Alex Rodriguez denies taking [illegal] PEDs during the time frame described in the story.” Rodriguez has hired prominent Miami attorney Roy Black, who is best known for successfully defending William Kennedy Smith of rape charges in 1991.

MLB released a statement touting its efforts to combat illegal PED usage and noting that former Yankees Cabrera and Colon as well as Grandal already have been disciplined (all last year) for failing tests. The statement concluded: “We are in the midst of an active investigation and are gathering and reviewing information. We will refrain from further comment until this process is complete.”

A statement from the Yankees read, in part, “We fully support the Commissioner’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.”

Rodriguez is expected to miss at least half of the 2013 season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum and impingement in his left hip. If he were to receive a 50-game suspension, as is the case for a first offense, he could serve that while still on the disabled list.

Baseball officials hope that, by through the relationships their Department of Investigations has established with federal and local law enforcement authorities, they can procure the information they’d need to convict Rodriguez — as well as the other players identified — by what is known as a non-analytical positive. That occurs when a player gets suspended under baseball’s drug-testing plan despite the absence of a failed test under the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

There is precedent for such action. In 2006, former Yankees reliever Jason Grimsley received what turned out to be a career-ending, 50-game suspension when federal officials raided his Arizona home and discovered human growth hormone. And in 2007, Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons got tagged with a 15-day suspension, as per the discipline terms of 2003-04, after an investigation divulged that he received shipments of HGH, testosterone and HCG.

At first glance, it appears that baseball and/or law-enforcement authorities will have to come up with more than just this Miami New Times report in order to penalize Rodriguez.

According to the clinic’s records obtained by the newspaper, Rodriguez — identified in the records as “Alex Rodriguez,” “Alex Rod” or “Cacique,” the name of a pre-Colombian Caribbean chief — paid $3,500 in 2009 for what is identified as “1.5/1.5 HGH (sports perf.) creams test., glut., MIC, supplement, sports perf. Diet.”

Both human growth hormone and testosterone cream are banned by baseball.

Another record links “Cacique” to IGF-1, a banned substance in baseball that stimulates insulin production and muscle growth.

Rodriguez’s infamous cousin Yuri Sucart, who was believed to be his drug mule from 2001 to 2003, is also identified on the records, having paid Bosch $500 for a weeklong supply of HGH in 2009.

Another page from a notebook labeled “2012” features this wording: “He is paid through April 30th. He will owe May 1 $4,000… I need to see him between April 13-19, deliver troches, pink cream, and… May meds. Has three weeks of Sub-Q (as of April).”

Elsewhere in his notebooks, the newspaper reports, Bosch writes that “Sub-Q” refers to his mixture of HGH, IGF-1, and other drugs.

The next step likely will be for Rodriguez and his fellow accused players to meet with baseball officials and discuss these allegations. Rodriguez underwent a similar exercise in 2010, when news emerged of his relationship with Anthony Galea, a Canadian doctor who pleaded guilty in 2011 to bringing unapproved drugs into the United States, including HGH, that were used to treat professional athletes.

No, this won’t be A-Rod’s first time reporting to the principal’s office. It could be his most damaging yet, though.

kdavidoff@nypost.com