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.
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.
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.
Bosch is expected to begin meeting with officials within a week. The announcement of suspensions could follow within two weeks.
Earlier yesterday, before news of his possible suspension broke, Rodriguez responded to recent criticism from Yankees managing partner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman by refusing to be dragged into the mud.
“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’s Joel Sherman by phone from Tampa, where he is rehabbing following January surgery to repair a torn labrum and impingement in his left hip. “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.”
Reached last night at Yankee Stadium, where the Yankees played the Indians and asked about a possible Rodriguez suspension, Cashman said he “had no knowledge of anything.”
Terry Fahn, Rodriguez’s personal publicist, referred all inquiries to Ron Berkowitz, a New York-based publicist who did not return a request for comment early last night.
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.
Sources did not say what other materials, such as receipts and phone records, 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.
According to ESPN, MLB has already established precedent to suspend a player for two offenses in one shot: minor league player Cesar Carrillo was hit with a 100-game suspension in March when he was confronted with Biogenesis documents containing his name and then denied having any connection to Bosch or the clinic.
Because Carrillo was on a minor league contract, however, and thus not a member of the MLB Players’ Association, he was not entitled to an appeal through arbitration. Major league players accused by MLB are expected to fight any suspension, and efforts to charge the players with multiple offenses would bring that fight to another level. In the appeals process, players are allowed to confront witnesses and evidence in a courtroom-like procedure before an arbitration panel.
dburke@nypost.com