Alex Rodriguez has voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit against MLB, the Commissioner's office, and the MLBPA, tweets Jim Baumbach of Newsday. Though the suit can be refiled, Rodriguez's decision likely indicates that he will no longer contest his suspension for all of next season.
Rodriguez had filed the lawsuit to challenge the arbitrator's decision to uphold most of the term of his suspension for using prohibited performance enhancing drugs. Though the Yankees will be without their everyday third baseman, the club will now definitively be off of the hook for the $25MM they owed him for 2014. The 38-year-old still is owed $61MM over 2015-17, in addition to $6MM bonuses for home run milestones begining with number 660.
Though Rodriguez had vowed to fight to the bitter end, there is no question that his legal case stood little chance of success. (Today was the deadline for his team to respond to the motions to dismiss the action.) If indeed this proves the end of Rodriguez's efforts to overturn his suspension, it could also be the final chapter in the Biogenesis saga.
I wonder how much he lost in legal fees.
It was reported he was spending between $5,000 a day by some outlets and $1 million a month by others.
5000 a day only covered his lawyers meals
So if he spent 3 million for 3 months of litigation to save him 8 million (50 games), that’s a pretty good deal.
But had he just agreed to a deal like all the others & not obstructed the investigation, he likely could have had a 50-100 game suspension & saved about $10 mil
They reportedly never offered him a suspension in the range of the others.
He has finally seen the light and decided to stop wasting time and money. It is also being reported that he dropped his other lawsuits as well. if he never sets foot on the diamond again it will be too soon.
Did he kill your cat or something?
it was actually a puppy.
I’d wager it was a centaur…
Are you related to him or something?
Really? So you think the Yankees are completely innocent in this? Like they didn’t know when they signed him to this ridiculous extension? He opted out during a World Series, the Yankees had an opportunity right there to cut their losses.
Huge for the Yanks to clear $25 million in cap space for this season…. There is not much out there right now, but they will be able to acquire some solid pieces before the trade deadline.
That money was already spent when they signed Tanaka
Now they are saying he won’t be attending spring training…
Next up, maybe he won’t challenge that nobody wants him to play baseball again.
voluntary is being thrown around loosely here.
I hear you, but for the record it is the technical legal term for what he did.
yeah i didn’t mean the headline at all. just the whole idea of what’s likely really going on behind the scenes of all these shenanigans.
I know, wasn’t trying to call you out or anything. Just wanted to make sure that anyone who saw the comment understood why it was presented that way. It’s the lawyer in me talking!
ARod had to respond to the motions to dismiss today, which is almost certainly what explains the timing. By voluntarily dismissing, rather than getting the case tossed, he theoretically retains the right to re-file.
What would be the statute of limitations on his re-filing? Based on contract or based in tort?
There is no statute of limitations for re-filing an action, per se. Generally, SoL periods are tied to each of the individual causes of action. How long the specific SoL periods run, I don’t know off-hand and don’t care to research, but most basic contract and tort actions have two or three year periods (depending upon forum and choice of law issues). Note, however, that he was challenging the arbitration award with at least some of his counts, and I believe that has a much shorter fuse (3 months?).
In all likelihood, the limitations period tolled (i.e., was on pause) while the original action was pending. Presumably, some of those causes of action arose as of the date that the arbitrator issued his ruling (though some may have begun earlier), which was not long at all before he filed suit. So, I doubt much time has really run off the clock.
All in all, highly unlikely that he refiles, I’d think. And if he does, he’ll immediately face the same motion to dismiss (which could also include some new arguments on procedural bars … who knows).
He is just going to focus on making a zoo next week when he reports to spring training instead
His lawyer just said he isn’t going
I guess he finally realized there was no way out for him & he would be better off by saving the millions of $$$ in lawyer fees.
i’m guessing it might have been more about not wanting all of the info to go public and still lose.
When you really think about it, in my opinion, this is the only guy that MLB could probably beat. A large amount of MLB fans dislike Arod before this incident. A large amount of fans dislike Selig aswell. I cant help but think that if they attacked Braun before he admittied, if MLB would have been as successful. Not saying they were picking on AROD. Just pointing out that this probably the one guy that most people dislike as much if not more than Selig
They has so much evidence that the others accepted their suspensions, so in reality MLB beat them all. Alex was the only one to not accept any deal. It was reported at the time that MLB offered him a shorter suspension and Alex refused, then MLB found out that Alex tried to buy evidence, tried to bribe etc. That is when they went after him full tilt.
Fair enough. I just found it odd that two of the most disliked people in MLB were going at it.
What was the shorter suspension they offered him before he refused? Please answer because you seem to know exactly what happened.
According to reports by Buster Olney and others yes there was. It was reported moths ago as well as recently as a few days ago. Just Google this phrase “Source A-Rod blew his chance to take a deal for a 50 games suspension”. It will lead you to one article. Similar phrases will lead to others as will narrowing the search timelines.
So it’s okay for MLB to buy evidence, but not okay for Alex Rodriguez to buy the same evidence? Got it.
MLB, unlike A-Rod, bought the evidence in the course of an investigation into a player violating the JDA. A-Rod bought it to try and hamper that investigation and destroy the evidence so yea…there is a difference.
I think there are still a couple of other suits pending, the conspiracy charge and the one against the Yankees Dr.
I actually think Arod is looking forward to the time off. If he wants to play ball he is rich enough to set up a couple of teams, buy a stadium and play.
It’s been reported by other outlets that he dropped ALL the lawsuits.
Some of the “spin” coming off this is that A-Rod didn’t want to turn into Pete Rose and be completely blackballed by the sport; he wants to come back in 2015 to play and have a role in baseball after his playing days are over.
Personally, I think that if the court had dismissed the suits (which I think they would have done), the Yankees would have had great ammunition to try to void the rest of his contract altogether. By voluntarily withdrawing the suits without prejudice (i.e., he could re-file if he wanted), A-Rod can to maintain his claim that he did nothing wrong (without being under oath) but will accept the suspension for the good of the game… making the Yankees’ task to get out from under the deal much harder. In short, it was game theory as to how much money he could end up losing… a LOT.
Yesterday while reading MLBTR during my morning ritual, I thought about how happy I was that it had been almost a month since I’d read anything involving A-Rod, and in fact came very close to commenting about it on here. I’m very glad I didn’t because I would have been convinced that I jinxed us all…
Another MLB player destroyed. Hurray, I guess?
Destroyed by himself.
Great finale. Now he can announce next winter that his hip is completely shot and unable to play (see Albert belle for an example) and the NYY can pay him the rest of his money, yet be on the hook cap wise until 2017..
That’s how it works legally.. MLB could change the rules of course since bell was pre salary cap rules, just as was Wayne Garland (1978-88 I believe) and Garland eventually stopped forcing the Indians to even pay him for his destroyed shoulder, but i doubt ARod will allow NY to get off the hook for his hip and not playing for a year? Anyone else think that is not plan B?
Now get Ortiz, Roberts and the few that are left on the Mitchell report. Get em all.
Baseball can really regain a small level of credibility by doing this.
No, no they cannot. The lengths the MLB went to to bust A-Rod damaged their reputation considerably. Buying witnesses with duffel bags full of money and having a MLB lawyer sleep with a witness for information is hardly credible.
What is this about the lawyer and a witness?
yeah no kidding. i wanna know more about this.
I don’t agree. I’m no fan of Ortiz and I think he got kid glove treatment, but we don’t need a continuation of old cases. Enforce the rules you have right now with the cheaters you can find now. Do it enough, and eventually everyone will get the message. The stars who juiced already are seeing it in the HOF votes.
Hey, If Yankees dump Arod (Not to far fetched), we could have both Selig and Arod leaving MLB after 2014…
No way the Yankees drop A-rod. He would get a minor league deal in minutes. He may make headlines off the field, but he is still not half bad on the field. Plus, the Yankees would be better off hoping he fails another test and saving more money.
it wouldn’t be too far fetched. Bonds was a way better hitter in his last year than arod is now, and he got no offers. baggage will do that to you.
I always thought the Rays should’ve picked him up in the summer of 08 to replace the battered Cliff Floyd as DH. Unlikely to have been the difference maker in the WS and his baggage may have disrupted the chi.
a-rod has never failed a drug test
doesn’t have to. part of this suspension is for violating the joint drug policy… doesn’t matter how he was caught. a second time violating would be a second offense.
i think he was just commenting on that guy’s posting saying that he hopes if fails another. but did i miss something? didn’t he fail a test? i know it was supposed to be confidential and not be leaked like it did, but didn’t he fail that one?
You mean the survey testing… yea supposedly he was on with with Ortiz and Manny
Bonds couldn’t get a minor league deal…. just saying
Smart thing for him to do. High cost, lower expectation of success, and the math is ultimately in his favor. He gets back on the field in 2015, makes his salary, makes the first incentive, and goes from there. I doubt the Yankees will simply release him. He can DH, and if he re-injures himself he will still get paid. The biggest mistake he made in this was going after Michael Weiner and the union–but particularly Michael Weiner, who was almost universally held in high esteem and literally died n the job.
About time to fade into the sunset A-rod.
I support Alex Rodriguez….
For someone as egotistical and self-absorbed as A-Rod, continually professing to be the victim, you know the MLB had him beat if he withdrew everything. If those million dollar Yes Men that A-Rod hired as lawyers, have actually said dude, you can’t win this this…that says something.
brotherfox said:
Rodriguez will forfeit $22,131,147 of his 2014 base salary of $25 million. The ’14 Major League season is defined as lasting 183 days, and with Rodriguez suspended for 162 games, he will be paid nearly $3 million for the remaining 21 days.
Many people has taken PEDs….
If you have taken aspirins then you are a PEDs user….
Oh, come on…
ARod lover denial.
In a perfect world, A-Rod would serve his suspension and his salary would still count against the Yankees for the luxury tax. The Yankees are equally guilty here. They knew the risk when he opted out of his contract and they resigned him.
I have to disagree with that. You can’t start making rules up mid-game, just because you don’t like a particular team. There are a lot of PED cheats out there, some discovered and some undiscovered, and any number of them have been re-signed by their existing teams or got new contracts from other teams. Punishing the Yankees may make you feel good, but it’s fundamentally unfair.