You won't see Alex Rodriguez wearing New York Yankees pinstripes this year. He's been banned from baseball for 162 games for his involvement in Major League Baseball's Biogenesis scandal. The suspension also includes all potential playoff games in 2014.
Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz reduced the Yankees third baseman's ban down from 211 games. The suspension also includes all potential playoff games in 2014. As expected, Rodriguez said he will appeal Saturday's ruling in federal court.
The decision will save the Yankees about $24 million based on A-Rod's 2014 salary; the team still owes him about $61 million for 2015-17.
It is the longest suspension for doping in baseball history. And once again raises the possibility that the 38-year-old Rodriguez, the highest-paid player in baseball, will never play another game, particularly given his recent spate of injuries.
"This injustice is MLB's first step toward abolishing guaranteed contracts in the 2016 bargaining round, instituting lifetime bans for single violations of drug policy, and further insulating its corrupt investigative program from any variety defense by accused players, or any variety of objective review," he said.
"I have been clear that I did not use performance enhancing substances as alleged in the notice of discipline, or violate the Basic Agreement or the Joint Drug Agreement in any manner, and in order to prove it I will take this fight to federal court. I am confident that when a federal judge reviews the entirety of the record, the hearsay testimony of a criminal whose own records demonstrate that he dealt drugs to minors, and the lack of credible evidence put forth by MLB, that the judge will find that the panel blatantly disregarded the law and facts, and will overturn the suspension," said Rodriguez.
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