New York, NY (My Sportsbook) -
New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has reportedly been linked to a trainer who was banned from Major League Baseball clubhouses after an investigation spurred by a 2001 incident involving a bag of steroids.
The New York Daily News cited a source as saying Angel Presinal, a Dominican trainer, has been associated with Rodriguez since his time with the Texas Rangers -- a three-year period from 2001-03 when the three-time AL MVP has acknowledged using steroids.
A source also told the paper that Presinal traveled with Rodriguez's steroid- providing cousin, eventually identified as Yuri Sucart, in 2007. The two stayed in the same hotels as Rodriguez, but in different rooms.
Presinal was banned from private areas of Major League Baseball after he was questioned by Canadian authorities in 2001 about a duffel bag found at a Toronto airport containing steroids.
As detailed in the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, released in December 2007, Canadian Border Service officers, on October 4, 2001, discovered an unmarked bag of steroids and syringes in a search of luggage that had been unloaded from the Cleveland Indians flight from Kansas City.
The bag was claimed by a member of Juan Gonzalez's entourage, who said the bag belonged to Presinal -- then Gonzalez's personal trainer. Presinal, according to a security agent's account in the Mitchell Report, admitted to packing the bag. However, when interviewed for the Mitchell Report, Presinal denied ever making such statements and said he has no knowledge of MLB players involved with steroids.
Major League Baseball did its own investigation of Presinal following the Toronto incident and banned him from any part of a big league ballpark not open to the public.
Presinal, according to the Daily News, runs a gym in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The paper also said he has worked with other notable major league players, including Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, Miguel Tejada, Adrian Beltre and Jose Guillen.
