Arbitrator reduces A-Rod’s ban to 162 games

Today Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez had his record 211-game suspension reduced to 162 games by an arbitrator.

Pay per head services saw that Major League Baseball confirmed the reduction of the suspension, which will also include the entire 2014 postseason, following arbitrator Frederic Horowitz’s ruling.

Rodriguez’ statement shortly after the ruling said, “The number of games sadly comes as no surprise, as the deck has been stacked against me from day one. 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.”

Rodriguez was suspended in August for his role in the Biogenesis scandal that resulted in the suspensions of 12 other players due to their use of performance-enhancing drugs supplied by Biogenesis of America.

Rodriguez allegedly interfered with MLB’s investigation. He filed an appeal and had been engaged in a legal battle with MLB in the weeks leading up to Horowitz’s ruling.

A-Rod has maintained his innocence throughout the situation, walked out of his grievance hearing with Horowitz back in November and then went on WFAN radio to state his case and denied using PEDs.

He was slated to make $25 million this year, but his salary will be wiped off the Yankees’ books during the suspension.