The New York Yankees have been eliminated from the playoffs after a tough stretch to end the season after playing themselves close to the wild card race and now the tough offseason questions begin for third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who will have his suspension appeal start tentatively on September 30.
According to ESPN.com, Rodriguez will have his appeal for his 211-game suspension by an arbitrator after the regular season ends on Monday September 30. The report says that Rodriguez's appeal will be held in front of an arbitrator that was previously picked by Major League Baseball and the Players Association and while many expect Rodriguez to be suspended, they also expect that the high number of 211 will come down to something more reasonable.
According to SI.com and legal analyst Michael McCann, the main reason why the suspension will likely come down is because the third baseman and his crack legal team will fight that the CBA and the joint drug agreement does not call for a suspension of that number. Baseball obviously is trying to say that Rodriguez is a repeat offender after he previously admitted to using PEDs, but no one will know what is said until after the hearing and if there is a settlement, which Mike Francesa predicted, there's a chance that no one will find out exactly what was said or what was found in the case.
Francesa also speculated that there is a chance that a settlement could happen before the Monday date, but none of those reports have yet been confirmed, as the season is still going on. The Yankees obviously won't be in the playoffs, so that won't be an issues, but the team will be watching carefully about what happens here, as Rodriguez is owed quite a bit of money and with Robinson Cano reportedly asking for over $300 million, the team needs to know how much it will be on the hook for next season.
The Yankees have plenty of unpleasant questions to look at this offseason, including Rodriguez as well as the contract for Cano and on top of that they also need to make a decision on whether Joe Girardi will be back or not. The location of the arbitration hearing with Fredric Horowitz is not known yet and the two sides will meet on September 30 to start the appeal and the decision could come down quickly or after a few days.
The New York Time detailed in a story last week that Rodriguez has a large legal team and crisis team working with him on this case that he has been spending thousands of dollars on. Rodriguez likely will use all the weapons at his disposal to try and get out of, or lessen the suspension and he has the legal team to do it, including one lawyer that got Ryan Braun's previously suspension thrown out and overruled by an arbitrator after a test came back positive. The side argued that the sample was mishandled and everyone obviously knows how that worked out, as Braun was now suspended again for his part in Biogenesis.
