Let's round up more reactions to the news that Alex Rodriguez will be suspended for 162 games:
- Wendy Thurm writes for Fangraphs that the Rodriguez affair has brought uncertainty to how baseball treats PED-related offenses. For example, it's still unclear what provisions of the Joint Drug Agreement and the Collective Bargaining Agreement Commissioner Bud Selig used to decide on his original suspension of 211 games. And unless arbitrator Frederic Horowitz's opinion is released, we won't know what JDA and CBA sections were cited when that penalty was reduced to 162 games.
- Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports opines that MLB's victory obscures a larger problem for baseball: that PED-related stories threaten to overwhelm the sport. Stars like Rodriguez and Ryan Braun have become "corporations of one" who "keep PEDs in the news — first by using, then by perpetuating legal challenges because they have the resources to do so."
- Dave D'Alessandro of The Star-Ledger says it's time for A-Rod and the Yankees to negotiate a buyout for the rest of his contract. While Rodriguez has threatened further litigation, doing so would merely allow the Yankees to file a countersuit for the $61MM that he's owed from 2015-2017, according to D'Alessandro.
- A-Rod's career may be over, Bob Nightengale of USA Today writes. Rodriguez will be 39 1/2 years old when he's reinstated in 2015 and have just two months' worth of games on his resume since the end of the 2012 season.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says several factors in the case portend a contentious round of negotiations when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in 2016. Baseball managed to obtain the largest PED suspension in the game's history even though A-Rod never tested positive, and used questionable investigative tactics to build its case against the infielder. "Now more than ever, [players] need to fight for due process and protect their rights," Rosenthal warns.
Man, I saw a clip from an Anthony Bosch interview on the MLB network, and I have never heard someone sound MORE like they were making stuff up. Makes me uncomfortable D:
He’s getting paid by the league in multiple ways. It is very fishy.
It was really awkward. I was watching him speak and he looked like he was trying to think of things to say
Maybe so, but why would he tell the truth about every other player he supplied PEDs to, who all admitted to it, and then lie about ARod? Who also was on his list. ARod is 150% guilty
Because MLB doesn’t want a lot of little fish, just one big one to make example of.
As soon as he’s bought out, Amaro will be there with a multi-year deal.
Take the deal Alex, take it….
Howard, Utley, Rollins, Rodriguez
What an infield.
I cant stop laugh.
Hope he takes the field again at some point just to hear the reception he’ll get
Your username is astoundingly apropos
Arod does not need a buy out. The 61 million is guaranteed. Of course, if he test positive that may be enough to get him the lifetime ban. He better watch what he eats or drinks at the teams post game spread.
As for the MLBPA, they should fire Horowitz, but Bud seems to own them too
He might need a buy out if he ever wants to play in another MLB game.
A buy out pretty much assures he would not play another game.
He is under contract. Yankees will play him if he can still provide value.
Wow. Once again Rosenthal is dead wrong. The players…. not the owners…. are asking for a much more strict punishment for PED offenders.
Source?
Source?
It doesn’t have anything to do with stricter penalties, it has to do with CONSISTENT penalties. MLB has shown that they have no real interest in punishing the players, they just pick and choose suspensions on a whim based on whatever helps the team the most.
Rosenthal is right on the money. The Yankees and MLB were likely in collusion trying to get Rodriguez out for the season; they both want a a Yanks team with $ to spend so they can get younger and have a chance at the postseason. Just compare Braun’s suspension to Rodriguez’s and it’s easy to see why players would have no idea what their rights actually are.
Yankees getting younger? Sounds like an oxymoron.
Yea.
They signed at least 3 players this winter that are under 35.
And yet the average age of the team has gone up since last season.
Because no one is getting younger by the day….
And that, young grasshopper, is Bushido!
I really enjoyed that Rosenthal article. MLB has come out looking much worse than A-Rod during this ordeal in my opinion.
when attempting to clean up a problem an organization is always going to look a little worse. this is a big step toward cleaning up the game for real. players are going to see that there isn’t any hiding anymore. they aren’t going to just wait for a failed test and if information comes out they are going to act. the clean players statements and these suspensions are going to end up being significant steps toward fixing the issues.
Hope the Dodgers pick him up for a bench job in 2015. Pretty sure the Yankees will pay the bill.
There has to be more than we know, because Horowitz would not have gone to 162 with nothing more than innuendo, and the MLBPA wouldn’t have gone along as quietly as it did. It might serve a purpose to allow the transcripts to be released, so people know what actually went on. All the people who are somehow thinking that MLB and the Yankees are colluding haven’t spent much time paying attention to Bud Selig’s time as Commissioner. Bud has his cronies and his favorites, and the Yankees are not on that favored list. Do I think Bud has it out for A-Rod? Sure. But they have to have the goods on him because there’s no other rational explanation for the behavior of either the arbitrator or the Union. What was it that allowed MLB to go beyond the known guidelines? I’m no fan of A-Rod, but if he was really railroaded, then he deserves better justice. Every external sign seems to say he wasn’t. And, if I were MLBPA, two of my least favorite players right now are Braun and A-Rod, who blew up the arbitration system and are going the make the next CBA that much harder to negotiate. There are no choir boys here-just very rich people with a lot of firepower looking for the upper hand.
Not much substance in your rant. Lets wait until until more information comes out. It will be soon.
That’s a rant? You have made it clear from your other posts that you support A-Rod, but I would hardly call what I said a “rant.” Unless you were inside the room or have seen all the information, your opinion has no more weight than mine.
It will be interesting to see how long AROD plays baseball from this point on. Steroids certainly helped keep him in fine shape over the years, if he can still play some – there will be a team willing to take him on even if it’s only for the publicity that comes with his circus act.
If I am the Yankees, I am dancing in the streets. With his salary off the books in 2014, they may just slide under the luxury tax threshold.
I am not an A-Rod fan at all and gets what he deserves but he should have been treated like everyone else and got 50 games.
By all accounts I have heard yesterday..he was offered the lower penalty at one point..he and his people turned it down..so now he got what he got.
MLB has been looking for different ways to discriminate against A-ROD. the fact is that mlb doesn’t want a-rod to break the home run record and this is the only way they can make sure of that
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that this helps out the Yankees. Yeah, that’s it.