When several Baltimore Orioles players approached management about signing free agent outfielder Alex Sanchez, the possibility seemed intriguing enough. Sanchez was a speedy outfielder who could serve well on the Orioles' bench as a reserve and had thrived in the Venezuelan Winter League this offseason, hitting .350 in 37 games. Sanchez was no superstar, though he didn't need to be one to help the team.
When the idea of signing Sanchez was broached among the Orioles' top decision makers, though, it took just seconds to dash such a proposition, according to team sources. Sanchez had one striking negative going against him. He had violated baseball's drug policy in 2005, which made him nearly an untouchable for the organization. Sanchez eventually signed with the Florida Marlins.
A large number of current and former Orioles — perhaps more than in any other team in baseball — have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs in recent years. As a result, team executives say, the Orioles have decided to pass on players who have violated the league's drug policy or those who have been suspected of doing so either through media reports or the team's background checks.
"We do more homework in that area," team Vice President Jim Duquette said. "We made a conscious effort to not sign players that if there was something about it publicly we knew or even in our baseball channels if we suspected it was a source of conversation. It was definitely a topic that we considered heavily before we went down that road. I'd say we were sensitive to it more than any organization."
The list of current and former Orioles linked to performance-enhancing drugs includes Rafael Palmeiro, who tested positive for steroids in 2005; Sammy Sosa, who testified about steroids before Congress in 2005; David Segui, a former Orioles first baseman, who has admitted taking HGH, though under the supervision and permission of his physician; and most recently, Gary Matthews Jr. and Jerry Hairston Jr., were linked in published reports to an online pharmacy accused of selling performance-enhancing drugs.
Sosa, Hairston and Matthews have all denied the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Segui said he used the drugs for medical purposes.
"In general you always are concerned when you see a former Baltimore Oriole that has been linked to it," Duquette said. "You have to be careful about what you're saying because you don't want to accuse anybody, especially when you don't have a lot of evidence. But you don't like to see it as part of the game and you certainly don't want to see it as part of the Baltimore Orioles."
Duquette said it's often difficult to gather concrete information on drug use by players, but that the team has decided to steer clear of those suspected players.
"A lot of that stuff I'm not sure is completely accurate, but if somebody in your organization or somebody else's organization has a suspicion about that type of steroid use or performing-enhancing drug use, we owe it to our organization and to baseball to try to check that out and check into it as best as you can," Duquette said. "Unfortunately, a lot of it is circumstantial. If there's something concrete, then we'd try to rely on that. It would make our jobs a heck of a lot easier."
Orioles owner Peter Angelos said he doesn't believe his club has been heavily linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
"I think most of what you all have been writing, appropriately I guess, are the intimations of steroid involvement," Angelos said. "I don't know that anything has been established outside of the unfortunate episode with Palmeiro. Most of the other discussions, if not all, have been speculative. Maybe it's because of what I do every day, but I don't pay much attention to rumors or speculation or information. I think facts are what people should rely on and, until such time as there are hard facts in respect to any given player, we have to assume that none of them are involved."
Orioles Hall of Famer Jim Palmer said he believes it's unfair to categorize Baltimore in such a way, since not all the players who have used performance-enhancing drugs have been named publicly. Perhaps other teams would be linked, too, if all the names were public, he said.
"I don't think that's an organizational issue," Palmer said. "If you look at management, Mike Flanagan wasn't on steroids or growth hormones. I just think it's more of a cultural issue than it is an organizational issue. It's some players trying to get an edge and some of them happened to come through here. Obviously, Gary Matthews Jr. didn't come up in this organization. I know Hairston did. And who knows if he really took growth hormones. I just think it's such a gray area that it's hard to link them."
Jay Gibbons, who has been with the Orioles since 2001 and saw how destructive the resulting scrutiny from Palmeiro's positive test result was for the team in 2005, said the issue was moot until there is concrete evidence of rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs in the Baltimore clubhouse.
"You know this has been dragged through the mud for years now," Gibbons said. "If people are going to judge us because of it, so be it. It's already over with. I guess that's what you can say, that it's bad luck. Right now most of those are just allegations anyway. I try not to pay attention to it anyway. I've moved on. I'm sick and tired of talking about it."