Washington Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez arrived at spring training today as pitchers and catchers report for duty.  Gonzalez has been embroiled in a hot topic of PEDS when his name appeared in notes from a Miami PED Biogeneisis clinic.  After his name was released, Gonzalez took to twitter and vehemently denied any involvement or any purchases with the Miami clinic.  Gio addressed the issue head on today. 

“I feel very confident.  At the end of the day, I’ve never taken performance-enhancing drugs, and I never will. I’m actually pretty excited about this year.”  “You’re stunned, you’re shocked.  Your name was brought up out of nowhere. You’re like, you can’t do nothing about. You have to listen to what’s going on. You can’t jump the gun. You can’t jump to conclusions. At the end of the day, you have to listen in and wait patiently.” 

On his Dad's involvement.

“My father already admitted he was a patient there, a legitimate patient,” Gonzalez said. “And then after that, you know how my father is. All of South Florida, all of baseball knows my father is the most proud father in baseball. He says hi, he tells everyone about his son. That’s the best I can say. Other than that, I have no clue why my name was on that list or notebook or anything.”

Nats fans could possibly take comfort in the fact that Gio was added to Team USA for the World Baseball Classic.  Team USA manager Joe Torre is assigned to the front office of major league baseball and likely would not have selected Gonzalez for a team role if he knew a suspension was forthcoming.