If Alex Rodriguez doesn't seek settlement with MLB, Bud Selig is expected to pursue lifetime suspension
According to a source, if A-Rod accepted a settlement that would call for him to be suspended for the rest of this year and the entire 2014 season without pay, he would still have a chance to collect the $60 million the Yankees would owe him from 2015 to 2017.
By Bill Madden , Teri Thompson AND Michael O'keeffe / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/deal-a-rod-faces-historic-ban-article-1.1411133?pgno=1
Published: Sunday, July 28, 2013, 3:27 PM
Updated: Monday, July 29, 2013, 12:57 PM
Scott Iskowitz/AP
A source close to Alex Rodriguez says if the injured Yankees third baseman is suspended by Major League Baseball, ‘he will fight it.’
Armed with voluminous evidence they believe would warrant lifetime
banishment, Major League Baseball officials hope to know by Monday if Alex Rodriguez
will agree to a deal that would effectively end the Yankee third
baseman’s career but possibly preserve a big portion of the remaining
$100 million on his contract.
If Rodriguez and his representatives reject a deal, the embattled superstar’s suspension could be announced as early as late Monday or Tuesday. A source close to Rodriguez said the player was sticking to his story that he has done nothing wrong and was unwilling to cut a deal.
RELATED: LUPICA: BRONX ZOO 2.0 AN A-ROD CREATION
“If there is a suspension,” the source said, “he will fight it.”
According to a source familiar with the discussions between MLB officials and A-Rod’s representatives, if Rodriguez accepted a settlement that would call for him to be suspended for the rest of this year and the entire 2014 season without pay, he would still have a chance to collect the $60 million the Yankees would owe him from 2015 to 2017.
RELATED: FOR A-ROD, LIFETIME BAN FROM MLB NOT OUT OF QUESTION
The deal would allow MLB to impose the suspension immediately and avoid arbitration. If Rodriguez declines the deal, commissioner Bud Selig is expected to pursue what would be a historic suspension that would ban the 38-year-old Rodriguez from ever returning to the field.
The Daily News reported earlier this month that A-Rod and his representatives have had internal discussions about cutting a deal with MLB. Rodriguez’s representatives have also talked to the Players’ Association about cutting a deal.
RELATED: YANKS VS. A-ROD CONTINUES: TEAM TO DISCIPLINE SLUGGER
The looming suspension could come just days after Rodriguez’s legal and public relations strategy blew up in embarrassing fashion. A-Rod’s handlers, hoping to prove that the Yankees want to keep Rodriguez from returning to the team, asked New Jersey physician Michael Gross to review an MRI of the quad injury the team says is keeping the aging infielder off the field.
Gross, the chief of sports medicine and the orthopedic director at Hackensack University Medical Center, said in multiple interviews that he did not see any indication of injury on the MRI. Gross, however, had been reprimanded in February by the New Jersey Attorney General for “failing to adequately supervise proper patient treatment involving the prescription of hormones including steroids.” New Jersey officials said Gross had allowed an unlicensed associate to participate in the care and treatment of patients.
RELATED: A-NNOYED! YANKEE PLAYER SAYS TEAM TIRED OF A-ROD DRAMA
According to sources, however, brokering a deal is complicated by an internal battle among A-Rod’s own legal team, which has been led by attorney David Cornwell, who the sources say has distanced himself from last week’s PR fiasco, first reported on SNY’s “Daily News Live” and then detailed by The News.
In that series of bungles, Gross appeared on various media outlets challenging an MRI diagnosis of a strained quad by Yankee doctor Christopher Ahmad a week ago Sunday that kept Rodriguez from rejoining the Yankees in Texas, despite the player’s own claims of a sore quad.
RELATED: A-ROD CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY AMID CHAOS
In a phone conversation with Yankee president Randy Levine and GM Brian Cashman about his treatment and rehab schedule, Rodriguez was joined by Jordan Suev, co-head of the commercial litigation group at the law firm Reed Smith, which also represents A-Rod pal Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation agency represents baseball players.
As The News has reported, MLB is believed to have hundreds of emails,
text messages and phone records that show Rodriguez engaged in
performance-enhancing drug use in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and
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possibly longer, and that he and his representatives impeded Selig’s investigation.
That probe began following The News’ report last August that former Yankee Melky Cabrera and his associates had attempted to subvert a 50-game suspension by claiming a legal product had caused a positive drug test. MLB investigators quickly determined that Cabrera and his associates were bluffing, in part because a website for the product Cabrera claimed had caused his positive test had been created shortly before he met with baseball officials.
That investigation ultimately resulted in the suspension of former National League MVP Ryan Braun last week for the remainder of the season and is expected to nail up to 20 more players.
MLB officials hoped that when Braun cut his deal for 65 games it would send a message to all the other players involved in the Biogenesis scandal to do likewise. According to a source, once Braun learned of MLB’s evidence, he approached MLB seeking a deal, hoping to “get it all behind him.”
MLB was expected to announce the remaining suspensions at the same time, but baseball officials are now expected to deal with Rodriguez’s discipline before moving on to other players. Some of those players are not expected to face suspensions because they were already disciplined for violations that occurred during the same time period as the Biogenesis offenses.
Yankee catcher Francisco Cervelli, one of the players linked to the now-defunct anti-aging clinic, faces a 50-game ban.
If Rodriguez ultimately approves a deal for a suspension for the rest of this season and all of next, he would likely be forced to retire and would then be placed on baseball’s permanently unable to play list, at
which point there would be negotiations among A-Rod, the Yankees and both sides’ insurance companies over a settlement that would pay him the balance of his contract.
If Rodriguez and his representatives reject a deal, the embattled superstar’s suspension could be announced as early as late Monday or Tuesday. A source close to Rodriguez said the player was sticking to his story that he has done nothing wrong and was unwilling to cut a deal.
RELATED: LUPICA: BRONX ZOO 2.0 AN A-ROD CREATION
According to a source familiar with the discussions between MLB officials and A-Rod’s representatives, if Rodriguez accepted a settlement that would call for him to be suspended for the rest of this year and the entire 2014 season without pay, he would still have a chance to collect the $60 million the Yankees would owe him from 2015 to 2017.
RELATED: FOR A-ROD, LIFETIME BAN FROM MLB NOT OUT OF QUESTION
The deal would allow MLB to impose the suspension immediately and avoid arbitration. If Rodriguez declines the deal, commissioner Bud Selig is expected to pursue what would be a historic suspension that would ban the 38-year-old Rodriguez from ever returning to the field.
The Daily News reported earlier this month that A-Rod and his representatives have had internal discussions about cutting a deal with MLB. Rodriguez’s representatives have also talked to the Players’ Association about cutting a deal.
Richard Drew/AP
Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig is poised to pursue a ban that would keep Alex Rodriguez out of baseball for the rest of his life.
The looming suspension could come just days after Rodriguez’s legal and public relations strategy blew up in embarrassing fashion. A-Rod’s handlers, hoping to prove that the Yankees want to keep Rodriguez from returning to the team, asked New Jersey physician Michael Gross to review an MRI of the quad injury the team says is keeping the aging infielder off the field.
Gross, the chief of sports medicine and the orthopedic director at Hackensack University Medical Center, said in multiple interviews that he did not see any indication of injury on the MRI. Gross, however, had been reprimanded in February by the New Jersey Attorney General for “failing to adequately supervise proper patient treatment involving the prescription of hormones including steroids.” New Jersey officials said Gross had allowed an unlicensed associate to participate in the care and treatment of patients.
RELATED: A-NNOYED! YANKEE PLAYER SAYS TEAM TIRED OF A-ROD DRAMA
According to sources, however, brokering a deal is complicated by an internal battle among A-Rod’s own legal team, which has been led by attorney David Cornwell, who the sources say has distanced himself from last week’s PR fiasco, first reported on SNY’s “Daily News Live” and then detailed by The News.
In that series of bungles, Gross appeared on various media outlets challenging an MRI diagnosis of a strained quad by Yankee doctor Christopher Ahmad a week ago Sunday that kept Rodriguez from rejoining the Yankees in Texas, despite the player’s own claims of a sore quad.
RELATED: A-ROD CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY AMID CHAOS
In a phone conversation with Yankee president Randy Levine and GM Brian Cashman about his treatment and rehab schedule, Rodriguez was joined by Jordan Suev, co-head of the commercial litigation group at the law firm Reed Smith, which also represents A-Rod pal Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation agency represents baseball players.
Mike McGinnis/Getty Images
Major League Baseball had hoped that when Ryan Braun cut a deal for a 65-game suspension that it would encourage other players with ties to Biogenesis to do the same.
RELATED: MADDEN: WITH ANGER GROWING, TIME TO VOID CONTRACTS
possibly longer, and that he and his representatives impeded Selig’s investigation.
That probe began following The News’ report last August that former Yankee Melky Cabrera and his associates had attempted to subvert a 50-game suspension by claiming a legal product had caused a positive drug test. MLB investigators quickly determined that Cabrera and his associates were bluffing, in part because a website for the product Cabrera claimed had caused his positive test had been created shortly before he met with baseball officials.
That investigation ultimately resulted in the suspension of former National League MVP Ryan Braun last week for the remainder of the season and is expected to nail up to 20 more players.
MLB officials hoped that when Braun cut his deal for 65 games it would send a message to all the other players involved in the Biogenesis scandal to do likewise. According to a source, once Braun learned of MLB’s evidence, he approached MLB seeking a deal, hoping to “get it all behind him.”
MLB was expected to announce the remaining suspensions at the same time, but baseball officials are now expected to deal with Rodriguez’s discipline before moving on to other players. Some of those players are not expected to face suspensions because they were already disciplined for violations that occurred during the same time period as the Biogenesis offenses.
Yankee catcher Francisco Cervelli, one of the players linked to the now-defunct anti-aging clinic, faces a 50-game ban.
If Rodriguez ultimately approves a deal for a suspension for the rest of this season and all of next, he would likely be forced to retire and would then be placed on baseball’s permanently unable to play list, at
which point there would be negotiations among A-Rod, the Yankees and both sides’ insurance companies over a settlement that would pay him the balance of his contract.
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