A-Rod's Ban Reduced to 162 Games

ESPNNewYork.com's Andrew Marchand discusses Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez's suspension, which has been reduced to 162 games from the original 211 games.

Alex Rodriguez has been suspended for the entire 2014 season by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, who handed down a 162-game ban to the New York Yankees third baseman for his involvement in Major League Baseball's Biogenesis scandal.

The suspension also includes all potential playoff games in 2014.

Horowitz's ruling upholds a good portion of the original 211-game suspension levied by MLB, which banned Rodriguez in August after concluding its investigation. Rodriguez continued playing after appealing the decision.

Twelve other players were suspended as a result of the investigation, although none for longer than the 65 games given to Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun. The other players were suspended 50 games, the punishment for first-time drug offenders stipulated by baseball's collective bargaining agreement.

While the decision is a reduction of the punishment baseball sought, it still could mean the end of Rodriguez's playing career.

He will turn 39 in July and, coming off two hip surgeries and a 2013 season in which he played just 44 games, may not be able to return after sitting out an entire season.

The suspension a the culmination of a nearly yearlong process dating to a story in the Miami New Times last January that revealed the names of Rodriguez and others in the records of Biogenesis, a now-shuttered Coral Gables anti-aging clinic suspected of being a source of performance-enhancing drugs for MLB players and other athletes.

The testimony of Anthony Bosch, the clinic's proprietor, was a key element in baseball's case against Rodriguez, as were copies of the records, which baseball paid in excess of $125,000 to obtain.

As expected, Rodriguez said he will contest Saturday's decision in federal court. His spokesman issued a statement before the decision was even officially announced, calling the suspension "inconsistent" and based on "false and wholly unreliable testimony."

"The number of games sadly comes as no surprise, as the deck has been stacked against me from day one," Rodriguez said in the statement. "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.

"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."

Rodriguez reiterated his claim that he has not taken any PEDs in his time with the Yankees. The three-time American League MVP was biggest name linked last year to Biogenesis.