Alex Rodriguez is among approximately 20 players Major League Baseball will seek to suspend, perhaps in the next few weeks, for their alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs obtained through a Miami-area anti-aging clinic, according to an ESPN report last night.
Tony Bosch, founder of the now-closed Biogenesis of America clinic, reached an agreement this week to cooperate with MLB’s investigation, sources told ESPN’s “Outside The Lines.” Bosch’s anticipated testimony is what has prompted MLB to move toward suspending the players, including Rodriguez and Brewers star Ryan Braun.
Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli’s name has also surfaced in connection with Biogenesis as has that of Mets minor leaguer Cesar Puello, an outfielder at Double-A Binghamton.
One source familiar with the case told the network the commissioner’s office might seek 100-game suspensions for Rodriguez, Braun and other players, the penalty for a second doping offense. The argument, the source said, is the players’ connection to Bosch constitutes one offense, and previous statements to MLB officials denying any such connection or the use of PEDs constitute another. However, a source familiar with the case told The Post that was conjecture and that the commissioner’s office has yet to finalize a strategy.
A 100-game suspension would cost Rodriguez approximately $15.3 million of his $28 million annual salary.
According to ESPN, Bosch is expected to begin meeting with officials within a week. The announcement of suspensions could follow within two weeks. Other sources told The Post that MLB was close to finalizing a deal with Bosch, but was not quite there yet.
Rodriguez, who admitted in 2009 to using steroids from 2001-2003 when he was with the Texas Rangers, declined comment on this story. Earlier in the day, however, before news of his possible suspension broke, Rodriguez responded to recent criticisms from Yankees managing partner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman.
“The last thing anybody in a uniform needs right now is another distraction, and I am not going to be one,” Rodriguez told The Post by phone from Tampa, where he is rehabbing following left hip surgery in January. “I really don’t have anything to say about it.’’
Rodriguez said there are only “certain things” he can control.
“Right now I control my rehab, so I’ve been in Tampa working out seven days a week for 31 straight days trying to get back on the field to help my team win another championship,” he said. “I’m hitting, running, fielding, conditioning and working toward one goal, which is to get back and win.”
Asked during last night’s Yankees-Indians game about a possible A-Rod suspension, Cashman said he “had no knowledge of anything.”
Following the Yankees’ 4-3 win, manager Joe Girardi said the team would stick to the stance it has maintained all along on this subject.
“Our stance all along is to let MLB handle everything,” he said. “When I talk to Alex, it’s baseball related. We text or talk once a week.
“I check to see how he is physically, but as far as talking about that, no,’’ he said.
Asked if he worried about the effect this latest news was having on Rodriguez, Girardi said his primary concern is for the game of baseball.
“I worry about baseball being affected as a game … and what it’s been through in the last 15 years and that’s my concern,” he said.
Terry Fahn, Rodriguez’s personal publicist, referred all inquiries to Ron Berkowitz, a New York-based publicist who had no comment. Through Fahn, Rodriguez had previously denied any involvement with Bosch and Biogenesis, calling the reported documents that were said to contain his client’s name “not legitimate.”
According to ESPN, investigators have had records naming about 20 players for more than a month. But 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.
The network’s sources did not say what other materials Bosch might provide, but said he has pledged to provide anything in his possession that could help MLB build cases against the players.
Sources told ESPN that MLB officials were not sure how many players may end up being pulled into the scandal. The 20 or so they know of have been identified through paperwork, but Bosch is expected to provide more, possibly even a few other superstar-level players not previously linked to this case.
— Additional reporting by Kevin Kernan
dburke@nypost.com