Juan Nunez, the "associate" of Melky Cabrera who helped create his fake website following Melky's positive PED test, has been banned from all MLB clubhouses by Bud Selig.
Nunez served in a "consultant" role for ACES, Inc., the sports agency that represented Cabrera. And, per the Associated Press, he was banned by MLB in a memo that Executive VP Rob Manfred sent to all of baseball's clubs and their respective front offices on Tuesday.
"Please be advised that commissioner Selig has directed that all major league clubs are prohibited from granting Juan Carlos Nunez access to their clubhouses or other nonpublic areas," Manfred wrote in the memo. "Nunez is affiliated with ACES Inc. sports agency. Nunez is currently under investigation for misconduct related to our recent matter under the joint drug program.
"In addition, Nunez is not certified as a player agent by the Major League Baseball Players Association. Clubs should not conduct contract negotiations with Nunez or otherwise deal with him regarding players on the 40-man roster."
In other words, this investigation isn't done just quite yet. We mentioned on Monday that there was a possibility baseball could keep going after Melky and that "all options are in play" with regard to how baseball might handle additional punishment for the Melk Man.
Much of that punishment -- if there are additional repercussions anyway -- could revolve around what MLB finds when it starts digging into Nunez involvement into Cabrera's scandal.
Given that he's now banned from appearing in any clubhouses, or interacting with any players (more or less anyway), it seems safe to say that Nunez might not cooperate with baseball, unless they're willing to let him leverage future involvement with baseball for giving up info on what may have happened with Melky's situation.
Sports
If that's the case, it's not good news for Cabera and his agents. Whether or not they knew of the scheme perpetrated by Nunez could result in additional blowback from baseball.
Maybe it's not time to grab your popcorn just yet, but keep it handy in case additional fireworks come out of this case as a result of MLB not simply suspending Melky and moving on. It could very well turn out that the fake-website decision ultimately ends up hurting him a lot more than the testosterone.
