Major League Baseball May Have A New Drug Scandal Brewing Thanks To Jason Grimsley

Jason Grimsley of the Arizona Diamondbacks, a pitcher of little accomplishment who nonetheless has made at least $9 million over the past six seasons, has revealed to federal investigators that he’s used Human Growth Hormone, amphetamines and steroids.

It appears that Grimsley has been caught up in the third round of the Balco Labs investigation, as the same investigators working on the Balco case are working on Grimsley’s case. The lead agent in this matter is none other than I.R.S. agent Jeff Novitsky, the man who broke the Balco/Barry Bonds case.

The second round of the Balco investigation netted Patrick Arnold, a well-known Internet juice head and chemist who is based out of Illinois, who admitted to providing Victor Conte and his Balco clients with the now infamous “the clear.”

Grimsley had been cooperating with the investigation until he suddenly dummied up back in April, but not before spilling a lot of beans to the feds. In the court documents mentioned in the ESPN.com item, Grimsley’s statements included plenty of details and plenty of names of players, but these names had been blacked out.

As a result of Grimsley’s change of heart, the government asked for, was granted and executed a search warrant on Grimsley’s house on Tuesday. There’s no word as to what the agents found as a result of this search, but I’ll guarantee that there are a lot of nervous players in the Arizona clubhouse and in clubhouses all throughout the major leagues.

Even though the sizzle of the Balco case has long since died down, the impact of what the government found out as a result of this case is still being felt today, and will continue to be felt for the foreseeable future. Grimsley is exactly the kind of guy that the feds would want to get their hands on, a small timer who doesn’t want to be a patsy for the big boys.
Grimsley – who failed a drug test back in 2003 – has already given up a lot of info, and who knows what else he may decide to give up in order to save his skin. As a 38-year-old mediocre pitcher, his career is certainly done but his life isn’t. So expect Grimsley to start chirping again.

And even if Grimsley doesn’t spill, he apparently has given the feds enough to encourage them to keep on digging. I’ve said it before; once the feds get on a case they do not give up. In a high profile case like this you can bet your bottom dollar that this issue isn’t going to go away.
Stay tuned. There will certainly be more to come.