Baseball Still Looking at Rodriguez’s Care by Indicted Doctor

The investigators, according to several people briefed on the interview, wanted to question Rodriguez about his ties to a Canadian doctor who said he had treated Rodriguez and who was under investigation by federal authorities in the United States on suspicion of distributing performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes.

In the interview, which lasted several hours, Rodriguez was emphatic: the doctor had treated him but had never given him performance-enhancing drugs.

Fourteen months later, the investigators for baseball still have not accepted those answers as fact and are trying to determine what the doctor, Anthony Galea, might have given Rodriguez, according to several people briefed on the federal investigation.

In recent weeks, the investigators have sought to obtain the medical records Galea kept about his treatment of Rodriguez. To date, they have been unsuccessful despite the fact that Rodriguez has cleared the way for the records to be released, according to two people with knowledge of the request.

Galea, who was indicted in October by a federal grand jury in Buffalo on five charges that alleged he distributed performance-enhancing drugs — including human growth hormone — to professional athletes in the United States, has been in plea negotiations with federal prosecutors in Buffalo for several months, according to several people briefed on the case. The people would not be identified because the dealings between the government and Galea and his lawyers are confidential.

A guilty plea in the case, one that would probably involve Galea’s laying out exactly what he did and did not do for the athletes, could provide baseball with its answers and would probably make clear whether Rodriguez faces any criminal exposure. Rodriguez, according to the people briefed on the case, testified in 2010 before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the case. It is not clear what his testimony was.

Mark J. Mahoney, Galea’s lawyer in Buffalo, said he knew nothing about baseball’s efforts to gain records of Galea’s treatment of Rodriguez. Galea’s lawyer in Canada, Brian H. Greenspan, did not respond to two e-mails and a voicemail message left at his office on Sunday. 

Rodriguez’s lawyers, James E. Sharp and Jay K. Reisinger, issued a statement to The New York Times on Sunday.

“Alex fully cooperated with Major League Baseball and federal authorities in Buffalo regarding his treatment with Dr. Galea, including granting a release of his medical records,” the statement said. “Regarding matters before the grand jury, strict secrecy rules do not permit us to comment.”

Reisinger as a result would not say whether Rodriguez had told the grand jury if he was treated with H.G.H., or even whether Rodriguez had appeared before the grand jury.

Galea, who has said that he has used human growth hormone for 10 years, has treated several high-profile athletes, including Tiger Woods; Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran of the Mets; and the Olympic swimmer Dara Torres. He has maintained that he never gave athletes human growth hormone or any performance-enhancing drug but has said he prescribed H.G.H. to other patients.

Reyes’s agent, Peter E. Greenberg, said that Reyes had signed a release for records of his treatment by Galea to be given to Major League Baseball. It is not known whether baseball has requested Beltran’s records.

It is unclear why baseball has been reluctant to take Rodriguez at his word. But were its investigators to learn that Galea or his associates had implicated Rodriguez in any involvement with banned substances, baseball could move to punish Rodriguez.

A spokesman for Major League Baseball would not comment.

So far, it appears the federal authorities in Buffalo have rebuffed Major League Baseball’s efforts to learn more about the substance of their case against Galea, and their knowledge of any wrongdoing by athletes.