http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/05/sp...tml?ref=sports
taken from the above:
"The commissioner cannot discipline a player simply for refusing to
talk to Mr. Mitchell if that player could incriminate himself. The
precedent dates back a quarter-century. In 1980, a pitcher for the
Texas Rangers, Ferguson Jenkins, was caught with marijuana, hashish
and cocaine at a Toronto airport. When Mr. Jenkins refused to discuss
the matter with Bowie Kuhn, then the commissioner, Mr. Kuhn suspended
him. An arbitrator overturned that suspension, saying Mr. Jenkins, who
faced criminal prosecution, could not be forced into self-
incrimination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_Jenkins
But Mr. Selig could discipline a player if he were to conclude there
was cause for punishment, which includes any evidence uncovered in the
federal investigation. Mr. Selig has already acted in such a case:
Federal agents caught Jason Grimsley, a journeyman pitcher, receiving
a shipment of human growth hormone last spring. He was subsequently
suspended for 50 games, then he retired.
The federal investigators are not likely to prosecute the individual
players named by Mr. Radomski because those prosecutors generally go
after dealers, not users. Those players still might decline to talk
rather than risk incriminating themselves.
As current players are being called to meet with Mr. Mitchell, a
battle is beginning in clubhouses across the country over whether Mr.
Mitchell will receive the players' medical records he has requested.
So far, the union, the clubs and Mr. Mitchell have not agreed on
whether those records will be made available. Medical privacy and
employment rules complicate the issue further.
"In the end, it will probably be a watered-down version of the records
that comes out," said one club official involved in the process. "