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Rodriguez Seeks Meetings With Baseball and Yankees Rodriguez Seeks Meetings With Baseball and Yankees
(about 3 hours later)
Alex Rodriguez, despite his tough stance Friday night that seemed to set him on a combative course with Major League Baseball, reached out to the Commissioner’s office on Saturday, through the players union, and contacted the Yankees directly to seek a meeting, according to two people who had been briefed on the matter and who were granted anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly on the matter. SAN DIEGO — Despite a combative stand Friday night that seemed to set him on a collision course with Major League Baseball over his impending suspension, Alex Rodriguez reached out to the commissioner’s office on Saturday, through the players union, and also contacted the Yankees directly to seek a meeting, according to two people briefed on the matter who were granted anonymity because they were not permitted to speak about it publicly.
The intent of the meeting, both officials said, was to work out an agreement to mitigate baseball’s impending suspension of Rodriguez, probably within the next day or two. The commissioner’s office dismissed the request, both officials said, and for now is sticking to a take-it-or-leave-it proposal that Rodriguez accept a suspension through the end of the 2014 season. The request was made by Michael Weiner, the executive director and general counsel of the players association, on behalf of Rodriguez, the Yankees’ embattled third baseman.
Major League Baseball, which is handling all aspects of the investigation into Rodriguez’s alleged links to performance-enhancing drugs, is said not to be interested in a meeting at this point. For now, it is sticking to its take-it-or-leave-it proposition to Rodriguez that he accept a harsh suspension. The Yankees, who declined to comment on the matter, ignored Rodriguez’s direct request for a meeting because they are not involved in the investigation into his association with Biogenesis, a defunct anti-aging clinic in South Florida that reportedly sold performance-enhancing drugs to players, or the negotiations involving Rodriguez’s suspension from baseball.
The Yankees had not responded to the request Saturday because they are not involved in the investigation. The purpose of the proposed meetings was to work out an agreement that would mitigate baseball’s suspension of Rodriguez, which is expected to be handed down on Monday.
Rodriguez has met with baseball officials four times during the course of the investigation. A person close to Rodriguez said the requests did not constitute a new direction. Rather, they were part of a continuing dialogue between the players association and Major League Baseball about the Biogenesis investigation.
A person close to Rodriguez said the new request for the meetings did not constitute a new direction but was part of an ongoing dialogue. During the investigation, Rodriguez and his representatives have met with baseball officials several times. The officials contend Rodriguez has had enough chances to make a deal already.
Rodriguez is under threat of a lengthy and unprecedented suspension without pay for what M.L.B. believes is his involvement with Biogenesis, a now-defunct Miami anti-aging clinic that is accused of dispensing performance-enhancing drugs to players. Major League Baseball is expected to suspend Rodriguez and more than a half-dozen other players, and people on both sides of the matter said they could not see a way that Rodriguez’s situation can be resolved amicably. Rodriguez has become increasingly aggressive in his reaction to the investigation. On Friday, after a rehabilitation game in Trenton in which he hit a home run for the Yankees’ Class AA affiliate, Rodriguez made a thinly veiled accusation that the Yankees and M.L.B. were conspiring to “cancel” his contract. He is set to earn roughly $95 million through 2017, but he would not be paid during a suspension.
At the same time, he is working his way back from hip and leg injuries, and on Friday night hit a towering home run for Class AA Trenton. After the game Rodriguez indicated he would fight any suspension through the appeals process, and said he was worried about attempts to “cancel” his contract, suggesting the Yankees and M.L.B. would benefit from it and were therefore conspiring to do so. If Rodriguez were suspended immediately for the rest of this season and all of 2014, he would lose approximately $36 million. In 2015 he would be 39 years old, and trying to return after missing two full seasons.
Rodriguez is owed roughly $95 million through 2017, but he won’t get paid during any suspension. M.L.B. is believed to be seeking a penalty of historic length, more than 100 games, which could sideline him through the 2014 season and cost him perhaps $36 million. Baseball would prefer that Rodriguez accept a punishment the way Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers’ slugger, recently did. Braun agreed to be suspended for 65 games this season for violating the sport’s antidoping code, forfeiting nearly half his $8.5 million salary.
Once a player is suspended, he has the right to appeal before an arbitrator, and under normal circumstances can play until a decision is rendered. The commissioner could theoretically wield a special clause in the collective bargaining agreement to avoid that process, rendering Rodriguez unable to play immediately. But the union, which denies the viability of that power in this case, would immediately go to the arbitrator and request a stay of that penalty, and Rodriguez would be allowed to play. Baseball is prepared to make its case to an arbitrator if Rodriguez appeals any ban, which appears likely. The person close to Rodriguez said his legal team was preparing for a lawsuit that could draw M.L.B. into long and potentially embarrassing testimony. Rodriguez’s team would argue that the real motivation behind the investigation was not performance-enhancing drugs, but a desire to void his contract.
The union steadfastly argues that the commissioner, who promised in writing in the agreement not to invoke those powers, cannot and will not take that course. Once a player is suspended, he has the right to appeal to an arbitrator, and under normal circumstances he can play until a decision is rendered. Commissioner Bud Selig could invoke a special clause in the collective bargaining agreement to avoid that process, rendering Rodriguez unable to play immediately. But the union, which rejects the viability of that power in this case, would immediately go to the arbitrator and request a stay of that penalty. If the stay is granted, Rodriguez would be allowed to play.
If the two sides can overcome their differences and reach an agreement before Monday, when Rodriguez is scheduled to play for the Yankees in Chicago, there would be no appeals process and Rodriguez would accept punishment. If the sides can reach an agreement before Monday, when Rodriguez is scheduled to rejoin the Yankees in Chicago, there would be no appeals process and Rodriguez would accept a punishment.
Amid the acrimony and legal posturing, Rodriguez, who has yet to play for the Yankees this season, is apparently rounding into shape after hip surgery and a quadriceps injury. On Friday night he hit a towering home run in Trenton, and after the game he indicated he would fight any suspension through the appeals process. He said the Yankees and M.L.B. would benefit from a suspension and were therefore conspiring to impose one.
“When all this stuff is going on in the background and people are finding creative ways to cancel your contract and stuff like that, I think that’s concerning for me,” he said.
People who spoke to Yankees officials after Rodriguez’s comments said they were simultaneously saddened and amused by them, and they pointed out that the Yankees did not initiate the investigation into his reported involvement with Biogenesis.
Of course, with the Yankees’ offense looking so sluggish this year, they could actually use Rodriguez on the field — a once-unlikely event that may actually happen on Monday.