Selig to Bosch: We’ll protect you from feds. Feds to Bosch: We’re coming after you.

Back in June:

Before [Tony Bosch] would agree to a deal, sources said, he wanted an assurance that MLB could help mitigate any criminal exposure ...

In exchange for Bosch’s full cooperation, sources said, Major League Baseball will drop the lawsuit it filed against Bosch in March, indemnify him for any liability arising from his cooperation, provide personal security for him and even put in a good word with any law enforcement agency that might bring charges against him. Sources said negotiations over the agreement, which lasted several weeks, stalled over the last point, as Bosch wanted the strongest assurances he could get that MLB would help mitigate any prosecution.

Now, you might be wondering ...

1) Exactly what kind of assurances did MLB make to Bosch that ultimately led to his coöperation?

2) What is the nature of the relationship between MLB and the Justice Department that the former felt comfortable making such assurances?

Hey, don’t get bogged down in the details! The important thing is that the dirty cheaters be humiliated! Boo! Hit him in the face!

Meanwhile, today:

After months of negotiations and legal wrangling with the whistle-blower ...

[Ahem]

... in the Biogenesis clinic scandal, Major League Baseball still hasn’t pried loose documents he took from the clinic. But within the past week, Porter Fischer, the clinic’s former marketing director, appeared before a federal grand jury in Miami and turned over the records, sources told “Outside the Lines.” ...

The grand jury appearance by Fischer and his turning over of documents are clear signs that the scandal has gone beyond Major League Baseball’s intensive in-house probe and evolved into a federal law enforcement investigation that could lead to criminal charges against individuals tied to the clinic and its distribution network, including Tony Bosch, the shuttered clinic’s founder who is cooperating in baseball’s investigation.

It’s my understanding that Craig Calcaterra is both a lawyer AND an attorney, so let’s hear what he has to say:

To sum up: Baseball doesn’t have the documents, but the government does. You know what’s really, really hard? Trying to get documents from the government that are part of a criminal investigation so that you can use them for your personal business purposes. Which is what baseball would have to do if it were to use Fischer’s documents in an arbitration against A-Rod.

So, why not just go to Tony Bosch, you ask? Well, according to this report he could very well face criminal indictment here. Know what else is really hard? Getting someone who is under a criminal indictment to go on the record in a civil arbitration admitting to all of the drug stuff he did. Which is something else baseball would have to do if it were to go hard after A-Rod in the arbitration.

Maybe MLB can buy off another whistle-blower with grandiose “assurances” of immunity from criminal liability. After all, no price is too high, no burden too heavy, to burnish the legacy of our glorious commissioner.