The MLB will waste no time in their investigation of Al Jazeera's reported claims that a few major leaguers - specifically Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman - were involved in a doping ring and consumed performance-enhancing drugs.
Major League Baseball is now working to partner with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for the investigation, according to ESPN's T.J. Quinn.
"We've had discussions with USADA and are hopeful that together we can make progress in this investigation," Dan Halem, MLB's chief legal officer, told Quinn. Halem oversees baseball's drug program.
"Halem was expected to meet with USADA CEO Travis Tygart Tuesday at MLB's Manhattan headquarters," Quinn adds.
"Tygart declined to confirm the partnership or the meeting, but he said, 'We're happy and honored to assist where we can.'"
Commissioner Rob Manfred doesn't plan to soften up on the league's stance on PEDs, especially since former commissioner Bud Selig handed down harsh punishments to a number of players associated with the Biogenesis Scandal, which was the last such PED incident to dramatically affect the MLB.
Back in December Al Jazeera released a documentary titled, "The Dark Side," in which Liam Collins, a British hurdler, went undercover to unearth the use of PEDs in sports. The investigation claims an anti-aging clinic, the Guyer Institute, in Indiana, which allegedly supplied human growth hormone to athletes such as Howard, Zimmerman and Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
The Al Jazeera investigation featured a pharmacist named Charlie Sly, who made the allegations against those three players, but he has since retracted his statements on the subject. Sly previously worked at the Guyer Institute as an intern and initially claimed he supplied those players with HGH.
Zimmerman and Howard have since filed lawsuits against Al Jazeera in response to the claims.
Shortly after the documentary surfaced, the MLB said it was looking into the allegations made against the players in their sport, and they're progressing on that front.
