Update 3:36 pm: The Yankees aren’t letting A-Rod end his season early, if someone who would know is to be believed. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told ESPN New York’s Wallace Matthews that the reports of A-Rod ending his season Thursday in order to prepare for his suspension hearing were “false” and that he’s “wasting his time talking about it.”
Alex Rodriguez’s season not ending early after all
GM Brian Cashman has refuted the earlier reports that A-Rod’s season would end prematurely.
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
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The Yankees have given their third baseman Alex Rodriguez the final series of the year off so that he can prepare for his arbitration hearing set to take place next week, according to the New York Daily News. Rodriguez was suspended by Major League Baseball for 211 games for his reported involvement in the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic scandal, and was the only one of the 13 players suspended to appeal, rather than accept, the punishment.
To be fair, Rodriguez’s was more than three times the size of the next-lengthiest suspension, that of the Brewers’ Ryan Braun.
Robinson Cano seeking $305 million contract
That would very much be a record, yes. A-Rod’s arbitration begins on Monday, the day after the regular season ends, so giving him the weekend off isn’t a formality so much as a favor to help him prepare for his case now that the Yankees have been eliminated from playoff contention. It’s unknown if he will attempt to settle, or of his plan remains, as was reported shortly after his suspension before he and his legal team agreed to stop talking about it, to wipe the entire suspension from the record.
Rodriguez has hit .244/.348/.423 for the Yankees in his injury-shortened 2013, light years ahead of what his replacements managed during the first four months of the regular season. The 37-year-old is owed another $86 million over the next four seasons, unless his suspension is upheld.
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