After hearing testimony, as well as reviewing volumes of evidence, Baseball arbitrator Frederic Horowitz reached a conclusion that was in the air for far too long already: Alex Rodriguez had used performance enhancing drugs over the course of his career.
In a report from CNNSI, the decision was reached by the arbitrator and officially proclaimed Rodriguez as a fraud.
One of the key witnesses to the case is Anthony Bosch, the founder of now closed anti-aging clinic Biogenesis based out of Florida. According to the Sporting News, Bosch said Rodriguez paid him $12,000 a month for a virtual grocery list of banned drugs which included testosterone and human growth hormones.
Because of this, A-Rod will be suspended for the full 2014 season for violation of Major League Baseball's current rules on the use of performance enhancing drugs. The full suspension verdict was reduced to 162 games including the post season, Yahoo! Sports.
The suspension would cost Rodriguez nearly $25 million in salary under his existing contract with the New York Yankees. That contract would earn him another $61 million until 2017.
In response to his verdict, Rodriguez promised to take the fight to federal court.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Rodriguez wrote:
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. I am confident that when a Federal Judge reviews the entirety of the record, the hearsay testimony of a criminal whose own records demonstrate that he dealt drugs to minors, and the lack of credible evidence put forth by MLB, that the judge will find that the panel blatantly disregarded the law and facts, and will overturn the suspension. 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.
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