Major League Baseball has asked the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to help investigate whether players named in an Al Jazeera America documentary received banned drugs, ESPN.com reported Tuesday.
"We've had discussions with USADA and are hopeful that together we can make progress in this investigation," said Dan Halem, MLB's chief legal officer, who oversees baseball's drug program.
USADA and MLB have never cooperated to such an extent, though the two have shared information before, according to the report, which said Halem was expected to meet Tuesday at MLB headquarters in New York with USADA CEO Travis Tygart.
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Tygart declined to confirm to ESPN.com the partnership or the meeting but said, "We're happy and honored to assist where we can."
In the Al Jazeera America documentary first aired Dec. 27, an Indiana man named Charlie Sly said he provided performance-enhancing drugs to NFL and MLB players, including the Phillies' Ryan Howard and the Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman.
Sly also said he sent HGH to Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
Sly subsequently said he fabricated the information, though Howard and Zimmerman filed lawsuits against Al Jazeera America, which has since declared bankruptcy and will shut down by April.
Though Manning, who vehemently denied the report, figured prominently in the documentary, the NFL declined to coordinate with MLB and USADA, ESPN.com reported, citing two unidentified lawyers familiar with the baseball investigation.
The NFL has begun its own separate investigation, and, according to ESPN.com, investigators in the two parallel probes have communicated.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy responded to an inquiry from ESPN.com by saying in an email, "Our review of the matter continues. We do not comment on specifics of ongoing reviews."
