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Miami New Times, in a report released Tuesday, said that a former employee of the clinic, which is now closed, had provided it with medical records from the facility that tie Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon, Nelson Cruz and Yasmani Grandal to the use of performance-enhancers.

Cabrera, Colon and Grandal were suspended in the past year by baseball for positive drug tests. Gonzalez and Cruz have not previously been linked to the use of performance-enhancers. Rodriguez, who is now recovering from hip surgery, has admitted to using performance-enhancers from 2001 to 2003, when he was a member of the Texas Rangers.

Rodriguez made that admission in the spring of 2009. Since then, he has been questioned by investigators for Major League Baseball in several instances about possible drug links. In those interviews, he always maintained that he did not use performance-enhancers after 2003.

Now, according to two people in baseball, the investigators plan to question Roidriguez again, along with the others cited in the Miami New Times report, which even cites the actual shorthand notations the clinic made in distributing drugs to its baseball clients.

Until now, Major League Baseball did not have any documents that linked players using the clinic to performance-enhancers. The investigators, the two people said, will now seek to obtain the records cited by Miami New Times and authenticate them in the hopes of using them as evidence to discipline the players.

Baseball first became aware of the clinic in 2009 when its investigators uncovered evidence that the slugger Manny Ramirez had received a banned drug from the facility. Ramirez was ultimately suspended 50 games for that infraction.

Last summer the investigators began to take another look at the clinic as they investigated Cabrera after he tested positive. In the course of that investigation they uncovered evidence that an employee for Cabrera's agents, Sam and Seth Levinson, had hatched a cover-up scheme to deceive a baseball arbitrator and have the suspension for the positive drug test thrown out.

Baseball officials were angered by the attempt to subvert their drug-testing program and began their own investigation of the employee, Juan Nunez, and the Levinsons. In doing so, the two people said, they uncovered the links between players and the clinic. The officials did not believe that Nunez acted alone and asked the players union, which certifies player agents, to conduct their own investigation.

According to one baseball official, six of the players the commissioner's office believes were treated by the clinic are clients of the Levinsons.

Rodriguez is not, but the 37-year-old third baseman will undoubtedly become the focal point of the case. He is not expected to return to action from his surgery until July, when he will turn 38. He has become increasingly brittle just midway through a 10-year, $275 million contract that has become a burden to the Yankees and his link to the medical records will only raise more questions about his future.