Scott Boras, baseball's most powerful agent, urged Biogenesis founder Tony Bosch to fabricate records in an effort to overturn a 50-game suspension for Manny Ramirez, according to a published report.Newsday, citing two sources familiar with the matter, reported Friday that Bosch told federal investigators that Boras asked him to produce a patient chart as part of an appeal of a 50-game suspension levied in May 2009 on Ramirez, then a Boras client.
Scott Boras: 'I have never met Tony Bosch'
Boras on Friday denied the allegations and told USA TODAY Sports in a prepared statement that he'd "never met Tony Bosch" or talked to him.
Ramirez did not return phone calls or text messages from USA TODAY Sports.Bosch said he and his father, Pedro Bosch, did not keep patient charts on his clients, but that Boras told him to include hcG - a fertility drug - in the patient chart. Boras perhaps was not aware hcG was listed as a banned substance by Major League Baseball.Newsday also reported that Boras, Bosch said, aimed to cite Ramirez's accidental use of an elderly uncle's testosterone cream, believing it was aftershave, as part of his defense.At the time of his suspension, Ramirez cited his use of a medication prescribed to him by a doctor for a "personal health issue," offering no further specifics. Multiple reports cited sources close to Ramirez indicating it was hcG, a fertility drug that's also used to treat men with low testosterone levels. Doping experts also say it's used by steroid users to restore testosterone to normal levels.Bosch pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to distribute testosterone to major league players and other athletes from his Biogenesis clinic in South Florida. His sentencing has been pushed back to Feb. 18 on his attorney's request to allow him to continue treatment for cocaine addiction.The Biogenesis scandal resulted in the suspension of 14 major league players, including the season-long ban of Alex Rodriguez, a former Boras client.It's unclear if Boras would face discipline for his alleged role in the Ramirez situation. Numerous players implicated in the Biogenesis scandal were clients of ACES, a New York-based agency. One of them, Melky Cabrera, attempted to fabricate a web site to exonerate himself from a positive testosterone test in 2012.An associate of ACES co-founders Seth and Sam Levinson, Juan Carlos Nunez, was implicated in the concoction of the web site and later revealed to be a conduit between ACES clients and Bosch.Nunez was decertified by the union, and the Levinsons were investigated, but ACES faced only a censure from the Players' Association.The union also has an ongoing investigation into multiple agencies regarding their connections to performance-enhancing drug use.Boras lambasted ACES in an August 2013 interview with USA TODAY Sports, citing the "grave ethical issue" of Nunez's role in the suspension of Everth Cabrera, now a Boras client.Gabe Lacques and Bob Nightengale/USA TODAY Sports
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