Yankees slugger, Alex Rodriguez, won't be knocking any balls out of the park any time soon. He has been suspended for the entire 2014 season and playoffs. The move was upheld Saturday by Frank Horowitz, an independent arbitrator for Major League Baseball.
According to MLB officials, they had sought a 211-game suspension following an investigation into the All-Star's alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career. Horowitz reduced the suspension down to 162 games.
Following the arbitrator's decision, MLB issued the following statement, "For more than five decades, the arbitration process under the Basic Agreement has been a fair and effective mechanism for resolving disputes and protecting player rights. While we believe the original 211-game suspension was appropriate, we respect the decision rendered by the Panel and will focus on our continuing efforts on eliminating performance-enhancing substances from our game."
Rodriguez, 38, quickly took to Facebook to deny allegations of illegal doping and respond to the suspension.
"I have been clear that I did not use performance enhancing substances as alleged in the notice of discipline, or violate the Basic Agreement or the Joint Drug Agreement in any manner, and in order to prove it I will take this fight to federal court," stated Rodriguez. "No player should have to go through what I have been dealing with, and I am exhausting all options to ensure not only that I get justice, but that players' contracts and rights are protected through the next round of bargaining, and that the MLB investigation and arbitration process cannot be used against others in the future the way it is currently being used to unjustly punish me."
On the social media site Rodriguez also wrote that the "deck has been stacked against him from day one." As a result, the number of games he must sit out, he said, comes as no surprise.
"This is one man's decision, that was not put before a fair and impartial jury, does not involve me having failed a single drug test, is at odds with the facts and is inconsistent with the terms of the Joint Drug Agreement and the Basic Agreement, and relies on testimony and documents that would never have been allowed in any court in the United States because they are false and wholly unreliable," he stated. "This injustice is MLB's first step toward abolishing guaranteed contracts in the 2016 bargaining round, instituting lifetime bans for single violations of drug policy, and further insulating its corrupt investigative program from any variety defense by accused players, or any variety of objective review."
In 2013, Forbes Magazine listed Rodriguez at the world's 18th highest paid athlete with a yearly salary of about $30 million. This suspension will reportedly cost him $25 million of the $86 million remaining on his contract.
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