Nationals issue statement in support of Ryan Zimmerman after PED allegations

By Josh Land

Nationals

December 27, 2015, 11:47am

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Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman was among several high profile professional athletes linked to performance enhancing drugs in an investigative report from Al Jazeera.

The report alleges Zimmerman, as well as Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, purchased and used the drug Delta-2, a hormone supplement that is banned by Major League Baseball.

Ryan Zimmerman watches hit white.jpg "It's inexcusable and irresponsible that Al Jazeera would provide a platform and broadcast outright lies about Mr. Howard and Mr. Zimmerman," said William Burck, the attorney for both players. "The extraordinarily reckless claims made against our clients in this report are completely false and rely on a source who has already recanted his claims. We will go to court to hold Al Jazeera and other responsible parties accountable for smearing our clients' good names."

The Nationals issued the following statement this afternoon:

"Ryan Zimmerman has been an integral member of the Washington Nationals family for the past 11 years. During that time, he has been the model for all that we ask our players to be - contributing to his team, to his community, and to the game of baseball.

"We do not find Al Jazeera's report - which has already been recanted by their source - to be credible.

"Ryan has unequivocally stated that these allegations are false. The Lerner family and our organization fully support him. We are confident Major League's Baseball's investigation will show that the allegations levied in the report are unfounded.

"We fully cooperate with MLB, and refer all questions to them at this time."