Report: MLB, USADA to investigate PED claims

USADA CEO Tyavis Tygart met with MLB over the latest PED scandal. (USATSI)

Major League Baseball has asked the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to help investigate players connected to performance-enhancing drugs in an Al Jazeera documentary a few weeks ago, according to ESPN’s T.J. Quinn. The two groups have never formally worked together.

“We’ve had discussions with USADA and are hopeful that together we can make progress in this investigation,” said Dan Halem, MLB’s chief legal officer, to Quinn. USADA CEO Travis Tygart was scheduled to be at MLB’s offices earlier this week. Here’s more from Quinn:

The partnership offers obvious benefits for both MLB and USADA. MLB gets USADA’s institutional knowledge of the doping world, along with the quasi-governmental agency’s extensive contacts with law enforcement. USADA gets to participate in an investigation that involves the nation’s most powerful sports leagues, neither of which is under its jurisdiction.

Last month, an Al Jazeera documentary titled The Dark Side tied several players to PEDs, including Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Howard, and Taylor Teagarden. Al Jazeera’s source later recanted the story, however. Zimmerman and Howard recently sued Al Jazeera for defamation in response.

MLB did not seek the USADA’s help during the Biogenesis scandal a few years ago. The league investigated Biogenesis themselves and raised some eyebrows for their shady practices, like purchasing stolen evidence and getting into bed with convicted felons.

There is no timetable for the investigation to be complete. The penalty for first-time PED offenders is 80 games. Second-timers get 162 games and third-timers are banned for life.

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