The story that Texas manager Ron Washington had tested positive for cocaine last season was the big story of the baseball week. But the failed test occurred last season.

Why did the story only come to light now?

Randy Galloway of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes that the Rangers had a blackmail threat hanging over their collective heads.

Wrote Galloway: "A blackmailer had the goods on the team's manager, and he was making strong demands, using the manager's 'situation' as his hammer. Numerous sources within the team have confirmed that."

A tearful, yet forced, in-house confession to his superiors swayed any opinion about firing Washington on the spot in July. MLB officials were notified immediately, Washington was placed in a mandatory confidential substance assistance program, where it was later determined there was no evidence he was a consistent abuser.

But in July that was going to be the end of that story. Washington kept his job, and nobody would know.

Then, however, came the blackmail threats over the winter. They came from a team employee who had been fired after the season. The employee had all the details. And the employee had a list of demands.

Some of the demands were met, but the club balked at giving this person a glowing letter of recommendation and also refused at least one other item. By January, word leaked that the former employee was bad-mouthing Washington. Then this week, Washington received a call from a national baseball writer saying he had the details.

Pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg will not start the season in the majors. Washington sent him into Class AA Harrisburg. "I'm not a believer that a player can come from amateur baseball and step right into the major leagues," Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said. "I've seen terrific prospects attempt it, and the failure rate is too great. This is a prized asset." Strasburg had a 2.00 ERA in nine spring innings with 12 strikeouts.

Felix Hernandez tossed five scoreless innings and Franklin Gutierrez and Ryan Langerhans hit their first home run of the spring as the Seattle Mariners snapped a seven-game winless streak with a 4-0 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks. ... Ben Sheets threw four solid innings to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 5-1 win against the Chicago Cubs. ... Yovani Gallardo pitched five shutout innings and hit a solo home run, leading the Milwaukee Brewers to a 1-0 win against Kansas City.

A group of Baltimore Orioles pitchers took a no-hitter into the eighth Friday vs. the Philadelphia Phillies before Ryan Howard broke it up with one out. ... Oliver Perez being Oliver Perez: After four no-hit innings in his previous spring game, the New York Mets' -- and former Pirates' -- left-hander gave up hits to six of the first 13 Florida batters he faced Thursday.

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