I’m not much of a baseball fan, but as a kid the Yankees were my fav team (closely followed by the Red Sox), so when a news story pops up about the Yankees, I do tend to notice. Today, I noticed two stories about Alex Rodriguez.
The first story, which I can’t find a link to anymore, presumably because the new story pushed it out of the way, was about how the Yankees were going to fine him because he sought a doctor’s opinion on his (leg?) injury without their permission.
Now comes this story, about how A-Rod got his lawyer involved because the Yankees refused to remove him from the disabled list.
Are the Yankees through with him for some reason? WTF is going on?
They are paying him way too much and would love a way to get out of the contract. They’re looking for a fight I think, then offer him $25M or so to go away.
It’s hard to figure out. He may want to get back on the field because he just wants to play, or he may think it will help his position with regard to the Yankees or his impending suspension. The Yankees may not want to play him because he’s a distraction or for financial reasons or because they aren’t convinced he’s healthy. There is clearly no trust at all on either side, which makes sense since he’s a scumbag and a liar who is worried his career and reputation are at risk.
I still think there’s almost no chance the Yankees can get out of his contract. Maybe they can pay him to go away, but that’ll cost them almost the whole value of the remaining contract. He won’t go away cheap. I did read one article that suggested that if he doesn’t play for them again - if he stays in the minors for another week and then gets suspended, etc. - a larger portion of his remaining contract will be covered by their insurance. He’d get the same money but the Yankees wouldn’t be on the hook for as much of it. So that may be an issue. And who knows what kind of suspension he’s looking at.
I’ve said this before, but I think it’s apt: he’s going to go down as the Richard Nixon of baseball. He’s a guy with overwhelming ability whose insecurity and desperation for approval and lack of any sense of ethics are going to result in him being shunned by everybody. It’s a pitiable position to be in but he brought it on himself.
There are reports he could be hit with a lifetime ban from baseball for using PEDs and for interfering with MLB’s investigation into BioGenesis. It’s been reported that he tried to buy the incriminating documents from the clinic and destroy them so baseball couldn’t get them. I don’t know if they’re really considering a lifetime ban or if it’s a bargaining tactic to get him to negotiate, but it sounds like he’s going to fight whatever suspension they levy. He doesn’t have much reason to 'fess up since he’s looking at a harsh penalty at a very late stage in his career.
He is a repeat cheat and liar and the worst mistake the late George Steinbrenner ever made and that is saying something. He is a train wreck. Constantly making negative news and the fan base ranges from apathy to hatred of him at this point. Any records he may set are tainted and with a lot of luck he will have a lifetime ban coming down for cheating and obstructing the investigation in the latest PED scandal.
Let me reply with this. When drafted by the Mariners, he enrolled in the University of Miami because he felt the Mariners were loser and he wanted to show them they needed him more than he needed them. So he had this sort of attitude problems since day 1.
The possible ban is for violating the PED policy of baseball, repeatedly and with many side issues about obstructing the investigation, lying to MLB, etc.
His post season failures and injuries only add to the reason why NYY want to get out of his contract, but that has nothing to do with the ban. I think ARod wants to get on the field because that will make it harder to institute a ban or suspension. The NYY don’t want him on the field at all, so they’re doing everything that they can to avoid that.
A-Rod has proven himself a jerk many times over, but I don’t have a problem with a guy using whatever leverage he has to avoid what looks like a bad situation.
John Elway avoided going to the Baltimore Colts by threatening to play baseball. Same principle.
A-Rod is going to be suspended, that’s a given. He’s deluded if he thinks otherwise. In fact at this point it seems like they’ll ban him and take their chances in arbitration if he doesn’t agree to a lengthy suspension (i.e. the rest of this season and all or most of next season).
From what I’ve been able to cobble together from the press (who probably don’t have a clue as to what they’re talking about since it involves very specific legal/contract details so take it with a grain of salt) the fighting between him and Cashman is all about money.
The Yankees have insurance on his contract that will cover 80% of this year’s salary, but only if he is out the entire year. If he suits up for a single game and rides the bench, they lose it. They are metaphorically searching for every blotch on every MRI to keep him on the DL until the suspension is handed down, thus keeping him out for the whole year and allowing them to collect insurance on what they’ve paid out already (suspensions are without pay).
That’s the cut and dried, easy peasy party. The more complicated aspect is why A-Rod seems so desperate to get back into the line up knowing full well that he’s pretty much done. According to what I’ve absorbed, if he is able to get into a game he could then claim that he is unable to perform in game conditions, take a medical retirement and collect his remaining salary. If he were to be suspended (without pay) or banned before playing, he would forfeit the remaining $100+ million on his contract.
Assuming this is accurate, why he wouldn’t be able to take a medical retirement now isn’t very clear to me, though I could see some kind of arcane detail like that being written into a quarter billion dollar contract.
Further complicating things, apparently insurance companies are no longer willing to take the risk of an entire contract all at once and the Yankees likely don’t have insurance on any part of A-Rods contract past next season. If he were to play a game and take a medical retirement they would be on the hook for all of this year, 80% of next year, and all of the $61 million owed after that, roughly $94 million.
In summary, there is a lot of money at stake for both sides so there is a lot of yelling.
From what I’ve read, the Daily News concocted the medical retirement thing and it’s basically insurance fraud. I think he wants to come back and play because he has nothing else happening and he may really think he can win some people over if he’s playing. While he’s very cynical and self-interested, I don’t think he has any idea how people perceive him. Anyway MLB has been sending out the message that it’s willing to ban him for life for the drug violations, for recruiting other players to Biogenesis, and for tampering with a witness and trying to interfere with their investigation. It sounds like the best he could get if he were suspended that way is bargain it down to 200 games. So his people may be at the negotiating table now and they are supposed to be talking about a suspension for the rest of this year and all of 2014. Other than Jhonny Peralta I think the other players are going to accept their 50-game suspensions.
Okay. That explains the motivation of the Yankees, but shouldn’t the insurance company be crying foul? Or did their lawyers fuck up and leave a loophole?
The fact that the OP claims to be both a Yankee fan and a Red Sox fan (even in the past) invalidates anything he writes about baseball. And his posts on the subject should be deleted. Sorry, it’s a rule. Or it should be.
I haven’t really followed baseball in the last 5 years or so (I used to intently), but what has A-Rod done that’s so much worse than all the other PED scandal guys, like Bonds, Clemens, McGuire, etc.? Weren’t they all cheating and obstructing investigations?
The government charged Bonds and Clements with lying to FBI agents but failed to prove its cases in court. None of those guys failed a drug test save for Bonds (for amphetamines), and he was not suspended because it was a first offense. Har har har. Those players were not accused of interfering with any inquiry by Major League Baseball. MLB says it has documentation proving Rodriguez used PEDs, recruited clients to Biogenesis, tried to buy and destroy documents to interfere with its investigation and tried to coerce a witness.
