Report: Robinson Cano being investigated for ties to Biogenesis after associate’s name turns up in documents

Sonia Cruz is the spokeswoman for Robinson Cano's RC24 Foundation, a charity affixed to the New York Yankees star. Cruz also looked into a weight loss program at Biogenesis, the Miami-area "anti-aging" clinic alleged to have trafficked performance-enhancing drugs to dozens of major and minor league baseball players. Records indicate Cruz owed Biogenesis $300 in both July and August of 2012.

All this comes out of a new ESPN report by T.J. Quinn and Mike Fish, which says Major League Baseball is now investigating Cano's ties to Biogenesis. The league hasn't spoken to Cano, but it is, according to ESPN, looking to set up interviews with him and other players linked to Biogenesis. Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz and Melky Cabrera are among the players who have been linked to the clinic in the past.

Cano's case looks different from some of the others. His name doesn't appear in the documents, as far as anybody knows. The $600 linked to his spokeswoman's name is less than a baseball star would be paying for PEDs, even if he had an associate act as a conduit. In the initial Biogenesis news, players were reportedly paying thousands per month to the clinic.

Here's Cruz's explanation, via ESPN:

"I met with a nurse who works for the clinic, but I met her outside the clinic just to talk to her about a diet program they have for women," she said. "I never went through with it once she explained what it was. I thought it was just a diet/nutritional thing, but it was diet, nutrition, pills and stuff."

Cruz said she was introduced to the nurse "by another person" and said she never followed up to find out what sort of pills the nurse was recommending. She said she could not remember the nurse's name.

Major League Baseball, you'll remember, paid for Biogenesis documents earlier this month, after the Miami New-Times, which broke the initial story, refused to turn over its documents to Bud Selig & Co.

The Cano connection seems a bit flimsy – but at this point, having any connection to Biogenesis is cause for skepticism. What this latest news shows us, perhaps more than anything, is that Major League Baseball is looking into any connection to its players and Biogenesis. Now that it has documents to scour through, you can bet we haven't heard the last of this.

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