Red Sox noticed red flags

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 14, 2007

BOSTON - The Red Sox suspected relievers Brendan Donnelly and Eric Gagne of using performance-enhancing drugs but acquired them anyway, according to the Mitchell Report.

No current Red Sox players were among the 12 with Boston connections identified in the report, though Gagne and Donnelly spent time with the team that won the 2007 World Series.

George Mitchell, who is on the Red Sox masthead as a director, was asked about a potential conflict of interest.

"Judge me by my work," Mitchell said. "You will not find any evidence of bias, special treatment, for the Red Sox or anyone else. "

Donnelly was acquired from the Angels last offseason.

"He was a juice guy but his velocity hasn't changed a lot over the years ... If he was a juice guy, he could be a breakdown candidate," Zack Scott of the Red Sox baseball operations staff wrote of Donnelly in a Dec. 13, 2006, e-mail.

Donnelly finished the season on the disabled list and underwent Tommy John surgery. Hours before the report was released, Boston declined to tender him a contract offer for 2008.

"The club had no idea about names prior to release of this report," Red Sox spokesman John Blake said. "We didn't get anything until Mitchell released it at 2 o'clock."

Boston didn't sign Gagne as a free agent, but they got the '03 NL Cy Young winner at the midsummer trading deadline.

In a Nov. 1, 2006, e-mail to Red Sox scout Mark Delpiano, GM Theo Epstein asked, "Have you done any digging on Gagne? I know the Dodgers think he was a steroid guy. Maybe so. What do you hear on his medical?"

The scout responded, "Some digging on Gagne and steroid is the issue."