Alex Rodriguez reportedly admitted to steroid use

Alex Rodriguez allegedly peed on his cousin’s floor. That’s the headline, and we’re not being deceptive. A-Rod is in a tiff/death struggle with his cousin, Yuri Sucart, former assistant and drug mule, and Sucart’s wife is talking. From a New York Daily News exclusive exposé:

With help from the ominous-sounding SB Nation Superlab, we have jokes.

We don’t know how Alex Rodriguez is going to play after missing a year due to his 162-game suspension for his involvement with Biogenesis. His bat has slowed over the years, and taking a year off can accelerate that process. It sounds like Rodriguez has been working out like crazy in an effort to stay sharp, but he’ll still be 39 years old in 2015, and at some point, no workout regimen is enough to guarantee success.

A year off certainly won’t hurt him from a health standpoint. He’s more than two years removed from the hand injury that ruined the end of his 2012. He’ll be two years removed from the hip surgery that delayed his 2013 when Yankees’ camp breaks in the spring. His knees got a break, and he can finally have a normal, full offseason of workouts to get back into appropriate baseball shape, something he hasn’t quite been able to do the past few seasons thanks to these maladies. As said, the question is still out there as to what his bat speed looks like, but A-Rod very well might be healthier at 39 than he was at 35, and that matters when projecting his performance.

Alex Rodriguez has denied that he had any association with Biogenesis or the performance-enhancing drugs the anti-aging clinic sold. He denied it during the investigation by Major League Baseball, and while suspended, even at one point suing both Baseball and the MLB Players Association for their handling of the case that he considered a witch hunt. Now, the Miami Herald reports that A-Rod admitted to PED use to the Drug Enforcement Administration back in January.

The Herald had access to a 15-page synopsis of A-Rod’s meeting with the DEA, and from that they report that Rodriguez admitted to the use of “substances prohibited by Major League Baseball” between late 2010 and October 2012. Rodriguez also explained how Anthony Bosch, the man behind Biogenesis, explained to A-Rod how to beat Baseball’s drug tests in order to get away with his use.

If you didn’t miss the A-Rod circus at all, this is the official end of your season-long vacation. If you’re glad to have someone back who will say or do things everyone will feel the need to talk, judge, defend, and rant about after, though, then today is like an early Christmas for you. Regardless of your side in this, he’s back.

Happy A-Rodmas, everyone!

“I don’t think it’s safe to assume that he can play third base. With his age and missing a full year, you have to have some perspective,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, per Wallace Matthews of ESPN New York. “This is a very difficult game. Alex is up for that challenge, but I think it’s safer to assume that might not be something that he can handle the whole year.”

Rodriguez has played 1,272 career games at shortstop, 1,189 games at third base, and 105 games at designated hitter. He has never played first base, or any other position.

Lasorda did not hide his displeasure with A-Rod when speaking to ESPN’s Adam Rubin at a Baseball Assistance Team charity event:

The longtime skipper added that he once thought Rodriguez was “doing it legitimately,” adding to his disappointment, which was seemingly already prevalent after his god son, Mike Piazza, fell short of Hall of Fame induction earlier in the month.

However, leaders of the union struck down the proposal -- not because they disagreed with the idea, per se, but rather because they did not believe it was legally possible to kick out one of their members. Even after that was expressed, players on the call repeatedly asked to make an attempt. According to the report, not one member defended Rodriguez’s right to remain in the union.

Rodriguez had initially been suspended for 211 games for his part in the Biogenesis scandal. After a lengthy and messy appeals hearing, an independent arbitrator reduced the sentence to the full 2014 season. That, however, was not good enough for Rodriguez and he is now looking to take both Major League Baseball and the Players Association to federal court in an attempt to overturn his suspension.

Cafardo cites Stanford law professor William B. Gould IV, who sees two reasons why A-Rod’s case is doomed. The first is that the player never truly disputed the evidence against him, which included written records as well as suspicious communications with Biogenesis founder Tony Bosch. In Gould’s words, via Cafardo:

The other reason is that drug offenses have been handled on the “just cause clause” throughout baseball history. In addition, unprecedented offenses have been met with unprecedented punishments throughout sports history; Gould mentions NBA players Kermit Washington and Latrell Sprewell as individuals whose suspensions were tailored to their unique offenses. Since Rodriguez’s transgressions far exceeded a simple failed drug test, it is not inappropriate for his suspension to exceed the first-time penalty set forth in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Gould, per Cafardo:

Reversing the arbitrator’s decision might be difficult in the face of the evidence MLB has collected -- whether their acquisition of said evidence was sketchy or not (hint: it was). That evidence includes texts and phone calls between A-Rod and Tony Bosch, as detailed here by the New York Times:

“Burn after reading” doesn’t really work with digital messages, you guys. Though, A-Rod has likely figured that out by now. Oh, and another thing:

Outspoken agent Scott Boras is unhappy with Major League Baseball for its handling of Alex Rodriguez’s suspension, and he fears that the league’s deal with steroids dealer Anthony Bosch will encourage other dealers to pursue relationships with players, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

Boras told Rosenthal:

Replying to Rodriguez’s allegations that the MLBPA did not uphold its duty to represent him and “engaged in numerous acts that were arbitrary, capricious, and taken in bad faith,” Clark states:

In his complaint, which is available here from NBC Sports, Rodriguez references statements made by late-MLBPA executive director Michael Weiner in section C of the document under the heading “Damaging Public Remarks Made by MLBPA.” In this section Rodriguez cites a number of comments made by Weiner, who passed away on Nov. 21, that he refers to as “clearly inconsistent with MLBPA’s duty to fairly and ardently represent” him. He then concludes that these statements:

Though the suspension has been reported as 162 games, Horowitz appears to have termed the length as the 2014 season in his ruling, citing the unprecedented nature of the infractions as his justification for the length in the arbitration decision, which is available in full through the Wall Street Journal.

The arbitration decision ends with a similar justification for the season-long suspension with Horowitz stating:

The Major League Baseball Players Association will consider legal action against Major League Baseball in response to several interviews detailing the suspension of Alex Rodriguez on 60 Minutes, according to an official statement (via NJ.com).

MLB chief operating officer Rob Manfred and their principal witness against Rodriguez, Tony Bosch, appeared in interviews on the program on Sunday detailing A-Rod’s recent appeal hearing that resulted in a 162-game suspension. In The MLBPA called the decision to move forward with the interviews “unfortunate,” citing that the league “apparently lacks faith in the integrity and finality of the arbitrator’s decision.”

Bosch detailed his secretive relationship with Rodriguez, whose 211-game suspension was reduced to 162 games on Saturday. Bosch said he would inject Rodriguez at times with PEDs because the Yankees third baseman was “scared of needles.” Rodriguez also told Bosch to be very careful about being seen when the two men would meet.

The segment said Rodriguez spent about $12,000 a month in doing business with Bosch, and human growth hormone was one of the PEDs he used. Bosch even said there were some PEDs that Rodriguez would take right before and at the start of games with no risk of getting caught if there was testing afterward.

Rodriguez had his 211-game suspension reduced to 162 games on Saturday by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, making the slugger ineligible for the entire 2014 regular season and playoffs.

The report by Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” will feature interviews with MLB chief operating officer Rob Manfred and Bosch, who ran the Miami-based Biognesis clinic at the center of the scandal. Rodriguez was one of 13 players suspended by MLB in the scandal, but no other penalty was more than 65 games.

Should he win, or should he somehow remain able to play major league baseball at age 39 after a layoff of most of two years (including the 118 games he missed in 2013), he will have spent a fortune in legal fees in order to add to his total of 2939 hits and 654 home runs. The number of years and dollars remaining on his contract, three years and $61 million, almost certainly means he’ll try, but even if the numbers roll up his status will not change.

It will be much more expensive for Rodriguez to try to fight the penalty, even if he wins, than it would be for him to simply accept it and go home. That he will not do this, that he will sue to have the arbitrator’s decision overturned, is evidence of a very powerful sense of entitlement and an equally strong sense of denial. Given the closed nature of the hearings, we have not seen the full evidence against Rodriguez spelled out. All we really know for sure is that he did not fail a drug test. That must be galling. After all, either he (a) doped and got away with it by the rules of the game, or (b) didn’t dope but is being treated just as a doper would.

Rodriguez could have his equipment shipped and his plane tickets bought already, but that doesn’t mean that the Yankees will necessarily allow him to join them. Given the overwhelming probability that the third baseman will indeed miss the entirety of the 2014 season, New York might not be willing to give him any time at the expense of players who will actually be with the team next year.

Another reason the Yankees may not want him around: New York is surely tired of the drama the Rodriguez saga has contained and would rather not turn spring training -- when everyone is focusing on getting in shape for the season -- into a circus.

The new suspension means Rodriguez will miss the entire 2014 season. He will also not be allowed to play in the postseason if the Yankees make the playoffs. Missing the entire year will cost Rodriguez $25 million in forfeited salary. He will still be owed $61 million from the Yankees from 2015 to 2017.

“The number of games sadly comes as no surprise, as the deck has been stacked against me from day one,” Rodriguez said in a statement released after the decision was announced.

Major League Baseball’s independent arbitrator, Fredric Horowitz, could issue his decision on whether Alex Rodriguez’s drug suspension will be overturned in the next few days, according to the Associated Press.

The suspension followed an extended investigation into the Biogenesis clinic that also saw superstar Ryan Braun suspended, albeit for only 65 games. A dozen other players were suspended for the standard 50 games as part of the investigation, with Rodriguez the only player to appeal his punishment.

It seems A-Rod is currently making the calculation that any sort of legal challenge to a suspension of 100 or fewer games would likely cost close to the $15 million he would lose if he simply accepted a 100-game suspension. If the money turns out to be a wash, Rodriguez will then have to weigh the impact such a suspension would have on his legacy and the amount of mental anguish it would cause him.

At this point, both a strong legal challenge and an acceptance of a shorter sentence seem like possibilities entering the final stages of Horowitz’s deliberation. Rodriguez has often been defiant about the process, so predicting his reaction is difficult.

It’s unlikely that a decision will come during next week’s Hall of Fame announcements, in order to keep the news from eclipsing the Cooperstown. So, if a ruling isn’t issued sometime in the next few days, A-Rod might have to wait until the week of the 13th to hear if he will face the full 211-games, a reduced punishment, or a complete reversal of his suspension.

If the decision isn’t to his liking, A-Rod could take the case to federal court in an effort to dispute the matter again. While the court is unlikely to get involved in revising the league’s collective bargaining agreement, the process could still lengthen the process considerably.

Echoing the words Rodriguez used to describe Selig in his infamous WFAN radio interview last week, the updated briefing attempts to deliver a point-by-point blow illuminating the commissioner’s alleged bias against A-Rod:

The suit then states that the commissioner “lacked the courage of his convictions” to testify at Rodriguez’s appeal hearing last week, which, to the legal team, indicates that his actions were “aimed at” ruining the three-time MVP’s career.

Boonenberg cited new information brought to light by Rodriguez’s lawsuit against MLB as the basis for the renewed investigation.

The documents were allegedly stolen in March from the vehicle of Porter Fischer, a former Biogenesis employee who took those files, plus another batch, from the clinic in an act of whistle-blowing. Gary Jones, a native of South Florida, obtained both sets of documents and sold them to MLB for $125,000, according to ESPN.com’s Mike Fish.

Major League Baseball officials impeded an investigation by the Florida Department of Health into Biogensis founder Tony Bosch by purchasing clinic documents they had been asked not to obtain, reports Mike Fish of ESPN.

The Department of Health has closed their case against Bosch, who is not licensed to practice medicine. A state offical told Fish that the limited scope of the investigation and its conclusion were “direct results” of MLB purchasing documents related to the clinic. The official also alleges that the league knew the documents were intended for Florida investigators and that their purchase of the documents prevented the department from gathering evidence.

Rodriguez is currently appealing his 211-game suspension, and the hearing will resume Monday. MLB used eight days to present it’s case against the Yankees third baseman, with the hearing recessing twice.

Each side in the case is supposed to present the other with their witness list, but MLB has only received two names from Rodriguez’s camp, according to Davidoff. One of the names is an expert in retrieving text messages from Blackberry’s, while the other is Dan Mullin, the senior vice president of MLB’s department of investigations. Mullin allegedly had an affair with a female Biogenesis employee.