The San Diego Padres could face discipline from Major League Baseball amid accusations that they improperly withheld information from an MLB-wide injury database.
ESPN.com reports MLB is wrapping up an investigation into the Padres' potential manipulation of the system to improve their leverage in trade talks after at least four teams complained to the commissioner's office about San Diego's practices.
According to the report, the Red Sox, White Sox, Marlins and an unnamed fourth team objected to the Padres apparently withholding medical information on players from the central repository teams use to evaluate potential trades.
Any type of baseline treatment from a team's training staff, from routine medication to MRIs administered, are to be entered into the Sutton Medical System. Medical checks are a key facet in trade discussions, and teams are given access to the medical records of potential acquisitions in the system when negotiations get serious.
The ESPN report says athletic trainers throughout the Padres' major and minor leagues were told at meetings during spring training to keep two sets of records — a comprehensive list of all treatment for in-house use and a stripped-down version that only covered issues serious enough to warrant a trip to the disabled list that was fed to the MLB database.
The two-track system came to light last month after teams that acquired players from the Padres found out their players received treatment for various issues that were not mentioned in the medical records reviewed before the trades were made.
In one instance, MLB voided part of a deal that sent pitchers Andrew Cashner and Colin Rea to the Marlins, with Rea returning to the Padres after he complained of elbow discomfort following his first appearance for Miami — a problem that had been ongoing, unbeknownst to the Marlins. The Red Sox found similar discrepancies with the treatment history of All-Star Drew Pomeranz after he arrived from San Diego.
"The whole system has to be built on trust, to some degree," one official told ESPN.com. "You can't have teams withholding medical information in a baseball trade any more than you have a car salesman not disclosing vehicle history. It can't work. It's about the integrity of the system."
