NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez was speaking on a conference call.

”A huge debacle,” he said. ”Distasteful.”

That was on Dec. 13, 2007, when he re-signed with the New York Yankees and was discussing his decision 1 1/2 months earlier to become a free agent.

Now those words describe how some in the team’s front office feel about A-Rod’s $275 million, 10-year contract.

Once considered a player who could shatter the career home run record, Rodriguez has transformed from All-Star to annoyance for some in the Yankees organization. He hasn’t played a full season since he was voted his third AL MVP award in 2007, he’s out for at least the first half of this year following hip surgery on Jan. 16 and now he’s been accused of again receiving performance-enhancing drugs – an allegation he denies.

Even before the charges were published Tuesday by the alternative weekly Miami New Times along with accusations against Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon and Yasmani Grandal, some Yankees executives were wishing Rodriguez would just go away. Speaking on condition of anonymity because the team isn’t publicly commenting on A-Rod’s latest troubles, they revealed their frustration with the slugger.

And they have a big incentive for A-Rod to disappear. If he doesn’t play again due to a career-ending injury, about 85 percent of the $114 million he’s owed by the team would be covered by insurance, according to one of the executives who spoke on condition of anonymity.

New York also might be able to free itself from having the $27.5 million average annual value of Rodriguez’s contract count in its luxury tax payroll in each of the next five seasons, a key factor as the Yankees try to get under the $189 million threshold in 2014.

If Rodriguez is on the disabled list, his contract is included. But if he’s on the voluntary retired list, it would not be part of the total.

And if the Yankees fall under that $189 million benchmark, their luxury tax rate would drop from its current 50 percent to 17.5 percent for 2015. That would give them far more flexibility to pursue pitchers Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander if they become free agents following the 2014 season.

New York is not likely to be able to void A-Rod’s deal. Baseball’s drug agreement between management and the players’ association specifies the commissioner’s office has all disciplinary authority for violations.

A-Rod’s poor health, however, may provide the path to savings for the team.

While Rodriguez rebounded from right hip surgery in March 2009 to help the Yankees to their first World Series title since 2000, Dr. Bryan Kelly said recovery from his operation on A-Rod’s left hip this month will be more complex if for no other reason than it receives more stress because Rodriguez is a right-handed hitter.

Even before the latest kerfuffle, A-Rod seemed to have worn out his welcome.

Yankees management tired of spotting him on the gossip pages with Madonna, Kate Hudson, Cameron Diaz and Torrie Wilson. They bristled when he was seen with a stripper in Toronto, at a swingers’ club in Dallas and at an illegal poker club in New York.

They made their displeasure public in 2010 when they said they never authorized Rodriguez to be treated by Dr. Anthony Galea, who said he prescribed anti-inflammatories to A-Rod following the first hip operation. Indicted in part for illegal possession of human growth hormone with intent to distribute, the Canadian doctor pleaded guilty in 2011 to one count of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to mislead a U.S. agency.

Then came last year’s playoffs, when Rodriguez was benched in three of nine games and pinch hit for in three others. He flirted with girls in the stands after he was removed from the AL championship series opener against Detroit.

Rodriguez’s 647 home runs are 115 shy of tying Barry Bonds’ career record but he has totaled just 34 the last two seasons and his 38th birthday is in late July. He has averaged 119 games, 21 homers and 81 RBIs over the last three years.

Before and after most games, when media is allowed to enter the Yankees’ clubhouse, Rodriguez spends little time at his locker in the back left of the oval room, not too far from the entrance to the inner sanctum that contains the players’ lounge, steam room, sauna, rubdown room, weight room, trainer’s room and swimming pool. He doesn’t have one of the prestige locations flanking the back entrance, held by Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano, who took over the spot when Jorge Posada retired.

He has never been accepted by Yankees’ fans the same way they adored Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada. And now, with his increasing tabloid notoriety and declining production, some of the team’s executives have concluded he’s more a handicap than a help as the team strives for World Series title No. 28.

NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez was ensnared in a doping investigation once again Tuesday when an alternative weekly newspaper reported baseball’s highest-paid star was among a half-dozen players listed in records of a Florida clinic the paper said sold performance-enhancing drugs.

The Miami New Times said the three-time AL MVP bought human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing substances during 2009-12 from Biogenesis of America LLC, a now-closed anti-aging clinic in Coral Cables, Fla., near Rodriguez’s offseason home.

The new public relations firm for the New York Yankees third baseman issued a statement denying the allegations.

The newspaper said it obtained records detailing purchases by Rodriguez, 2012 All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera, 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon and 2011 AL championship series MVP Nelson Cruz of Texas.

Cabrera left San Francisco after the season to sign with Toronto, while Oakland re-signed Colon.

Other baseball players the newspaper said appeared in the records include Washington pitcher Gio Gonzalez, who finished third in last year’s NL Cy Young Award voting, and San Diego catcher Yasmani Grandal.

Biogenesis, which the New Times said was run by Anthony Bosch, was located in a beige, nondescript office park. The former clinic is no longer listed as a business in its directory,

”There was a flier put out by the building management a couple weeks ago. It was put on all the doors and windows of all the offices,” said Brad Nickel, who works in a group cruise planning company on the floor above where the clinic was located. ”It just said this guy’s not really a doctor, he doesn’t belong here, he’s no longer allowed here, call the police or the building management if you see him.”

David Sierra, who works in his aunt’s real estate office in the same building, kept a picture of the flier on his iPhone. He recognized the doctor in the picture from passing him in the hallway.

Sierra said while he never recognized any of the clients at the clinic, ”there were always really nice cars in front – I’m not talking just Mercedes. Range Rovers, Bentleys.”

The New Times posted copies of what it said were Bosch’s handwritten records, obtained through a former Biogenesis employee it did not identify.

Bosch’s lawyer, Susy Ribero-Ayala, said in a statement the New Times report ”is filled with inaccuracies, innuendo and misstatements of fact.”

”Mr. Bosch vehemently denies the assertions that MLB players such as Alex Rodriguez and Gio Gonzalez were treated by or associated with him,” she said.

Rodriguez appears 16 times in the documents New Times received, the paper said, either as ”Alex Rodriguez,” ”Alex Rod” or the nickname ”Cacique,” a pre-Columbian Caribbean chief.

Rodriguez admitted four years ago that he used PEDs from 2001-03. Cabrera, Colon and Grandal were suspended for 50 games each last year by MLB following tests for elevated testosterone. Responding to the testosterone use, MLB and the players’ union said Jan. 10 they were authorizing the World Anti-Doping Agency laboratory outside Montreal to store each major leaguer’s baseline testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratio in order to detect abnormalities.

”We are always extremely disappointed to learn of potential links between players and the use of performance-enhancing substances,” MLB said in a statement. ”Only law enforcement officials have the capacity to reach those outside the game who are involved in the distribution of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. … We are in the midst of an active investigation and are gathering and reviewing information.”

A baseball official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements, said Monday that MLB did not have any documentation regarding the allegations. If MLB does obtain evidence, the players could be subject to discipline. First offenses result in a 50-game suspension and second infractions in 100-game penalties. A third violation results in a lifetime ban.

Rodriguez is sidelined for at least the first half of the season after hip surgery Jan. 16. A 50-game suspension would cost him $7.65 million of his $28 million salary.

”The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true,” Rodriguez said in a statement issued by a publicist. ”He 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.”

Jay Reisinger, a lawyer who has represented Rodriguez in recent years, said the three-time AL MVP had retained Roy Black, an attorney from Rodriguez’s hometown of Miami. Black’s clients have included Rush Limbaugh and William Kennedy Smith.

Bosch did not return a phone message seeking comment.

MLB hopes to gain the cooperation of Bosch and others connected with the clinic, another baseball official said, also on condition of anonymity because no public statements on the matter were authorized. In order to successfully discipline players based on the records, witnesses would be needed to authenticate them, the official said.

Players could be asked to appear before MLB for interviews, but the official said MLB would be reluctant to request interviews before it has more evidence.

Rodriguez spent years denying he used PEDs before Sports Illustrated reported in February 2009 that he tested positive for two steroids in MLB’s anonymous survey while with the Texas Rangers in 2003. Two days later, he admitted in an ESPN interview that he used PEDs over a three-year period. He has denied using PEDs after 2003.

If the new allegations were true, the Yankees would face high hurdles to get out of the final five years and $114 million of Rodriguez’s record $275 million, 10-year contract. Because management and the players’ union have a joint drug agreement, an arbitrator could determine that any action taken by the team amounted to multiple punishments for the same offense.

But if Rodriguez were to end his career because of the injury, about 85 percent of the money owed by the Yankees would be covered by insurance, one of the baseball officials said.

The Yankees said ”this matter is now in the hands of the commissioner’s office” and said they will not comment further until MLB’s investigation ends.

Gonzalez, 21-8 for the Washington Nationals last season, posted on his Twitter feed: ”I’ve never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I’ve never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance provided by him. anything said to the contrary is a lie.”

Colon was not issuing a statement, agent Adam Katz said through spokeswoman Lisa Cohen.

”We are aware of certain allegations and inferences,” Cruz’s law firm, Farrell & Reisinger, said in a statement. ”To the extent these allegations and inferences refer to Nelson, they are denied.”

Sam and Seth Levinson, the agents for Cabrera, Cruz and Gonzalez, did not respond to emails seeking comment. Greg Genske, Grandal’s agent, also did not reply to an email.

Cruz and Gonzalez had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing drugs. Cruz hit 24 home runs last year for the Texas Rangers, who says they notified MLB last week after being contacted by the New Times.

The New Times report said it obtained notes by Bosch listing the players’ names and the substances they received. Several unidentified employees and clients confirmed to the publication that the clinic distributed the substances, the paper said. The employees said that Bosch bragged of supplying drugs to professional athletes but that they never saw the sports stars in the office.

The paper said the records list that Rodriguez paid for HGH; testosterone cream; IGF-1, a substance banned by baseball that stimulates insulin production; and GHRP, which releases growth hormones.

Rodriguez’s cousin, Yuri Sucart, also is listed as having purchased HGH. Sucart was banned from the Yankees clubhouse, charter flights, bus and other team-related activities by MLB in 2009 after Rodriguez said Sucart obtained and injected PEDs for him.

Also listed among the records, according to the New Times, are tennis player Wayne Odesnik, Cuban boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa and Jimmy Goins, the strength and conditioning coach of the University of Miami baseball team.

Odesnik, who lost in the first round of qualifying for this year’s Australian Open, is a former top-100 player who was suspended by the International Tennis Federation after Australian customs officers found eight vials containing HGH in his luggage when he arrived in that country ahead of a January 2010 tournament. He denied using HGH and never tested positive for it. What originally was a two-year ban was cut in half because the ITF said Odesnik cooperated with its anti-doping program.

”The statement about Wayne’s relationship with Mr. Bosch is completely false, and Wayne has contacted the reporter and newspaper for a retraction,” the tennis player’s mother, Janice Odesnik, wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

Mia Ro, a spokeswoman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami, said she could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation into Bosch or the clinic.

The University of Miami said it was conducting ”an intensive review” of the matter but did not identify Goins by name.

Goins was ”very surprised” to learn of the allegations raised by the New Times, according to a statement from Michelle A. White, of the Coral Gables law firm of Fenderson & Hampton, which said it was representing him.

White would not comment on whether Goins was a patient of Bosch but added that Goins ”has done nothing improper either personally or as a representative of the University of Miami,” and denies any allegation or inference of wrongdoing.

Each and every A-Stiff article about his PED use, must be included.  EDB

The Miami New Times may have uncovered the East Coast version of BALCO—the California lab that supplied performance-enhancing drugs to several high-profile athletes, including some of the biggest names in baseball.

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, Texas Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz, Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera and Oakland Athletics pitcher Bartolo Colon are among a group of players that have been linked to Biogenesis, a Miami-based clinic that reportedly sold performance-enhancing drugs.

Rodriguez is planning to issue a statement on the situation, which Joel Sherman of the New York Post was able to see and post (via Hardball Talk), denying that he had any sort of relationship or involvement with Bosch.

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.

The New York Yankees have also issued a statement about A-Rod’s inclusion in the report, declining to comment pending the conclusion of an official investigation (via Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com).

The clinic, reportedly run by entrepreneur Anthony Bosch, closed in December. Bosch is said to have disappeared shortly thereafter. The report notes that Bosch has an extensive history with steroids.

The son of a prominent Coral Gables physician named Pedro Publio Bosch, he was connected with banned substances when slugger Manny Ramirez was suspended for violating Major League Baseball’s drug policy in 2009. At the time, MLB confirmed the Drug Enforcement Administration was probing the father and son for allegedly providing Ramirez with HCG, a compound often used at the tail end of steroid cycles.

Bosch was never charged with any crime, and the New Times says that its attempts to reach the athletes named in the article were declined.

We already knew that Rodriguez had a history with performance-enhancing drugs. He admitted as much in an interview with Peter Gammons prior to the start of the 2009 season.

The Star-Ledger-USA TODAY Sports

During his admission, though, A-Rod claimed that he has not used PEDs since the 2003 season. The New Times report contradicts this claim:

Yet there was his name, over and over again, logged as either “Alex Rodriguez,” “Alex Rod,” or his nickname at the clinic, “Cacique,” a pre-Columbian Caribbean chief. Rodriguez’s name appears 16 times throughout the records New Times reviewed.

Take, for instance, one patient list from Bosch’s 2009 personal notebook. It charts more than 50 clients and notes whether they received their drugs by delivery or in the office, how much they paid, and what they were taking.

There, at number seven on the list, is Alex Rodriguez. He paid $3,500, Bosch notes. Below that, he writes, “1.5/1.5 HGH (sports perf.) creams test., glut., MIC, supplement, sports perf. Diet.” HGH, of course, is banned in baseball, as are testosterone creams.

And a few paragraphs later:

The mentions of Rodriguez begin in 2009 and continue all the way through last season. Take a page in another notebook, which is labeled “2012” and looks to have been written last spring. Under the heading “A-Rod/Cacique,” Bosch writes, “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).”

Melky Cabrera was suspended for 50 games last August when he tested positive for testosterone, missing out on the San Francisco Giants’ run to the World Series.

San Diego Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal, who is also named in the report, is suspended for the first 50 games of the 2013 season after testing positive for testosterone.

The Nats’ Gonzalez has never tested positive for PEDs. His father, Max, told the New Times he was the one that got in touch with Bosch in an effort to lose weight.

Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

“My son works very, very hard, and he’s as clean as apple pie,” the elder Gonzalez says. “I went to Tony because I needed to lose weight. A friend recommended him, and he did great work for me. But that’s it. He never met my son. Never. And if I knew he was doing these things with steroids, do you think I’d be dumb enough to go there?”

Gonzalez has also released a statement on his own behalf denying any involvement with Bosch.

According to Mike Fish and T.J. Quinn of ESPN.com, the league is currently investigating Bosch and Biogenesis, but whether MLB takes action regarding the specific players implicated in the report remains to be seen.

A league official reportedly told Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports that some of the players involved could face a 50-game suspension despite never having tested positive for PEDs, which does have some precedence. Back in 2006, MLB suspended pitcher Jason Grimsley for 50 games after federal investigators discovered he was having packages of HGH, steroids and amphetamines sent to his home.

Whether these players are ultimately found to be guilty or innocent, there is no denying the magnitude of this report. Expect Bosch and Biogenesis to remain in the news leading up to the 2013 MLB season.

EDB