Report: MLB, Yankees done negotiating settlements with A-Rod
An 11th-hour attempt by Players Association chief Michael Weiner to reach out to MLB and begin dialogue on behalf of Alex Rodriguez was essentially met with the click of a telephone. According to the New York Daily News, Weiner was informed on Saturday morning that the league is no longer interested in negotiating with A-Rod's representatives after extending multiple opportunities in the past. Their focus now is on reaching a settlement with his camp, or moving forward with their suspension which at this point would be a minimum 214 games through the end of the 2014 season.
Here's more from the Daily News report:
“They asked for a meeting this morning and were told ‘no,’” said the source. “Baseball is more than comfortable with what they have.”
Another source told the Daily News that despite accusing the Yankees Friday of trying to get out from under his contract, Rodriguez also reached out to the club Saturday in an attempt to discuss negotiating a settlement on the remaining $100 million the Yankees owe A-Rod. The Yankees also declined to talk with Rodriguez about his contract, according to the source, telling him this is a drug issue under the purview of MLB.
The deadline for A-Rod to reach an agreement is still set for early Sunday evening with an official announcement from the commissioner's office expected on Monday. In other words, MLB has said all it needs to say to A-Rod at this point, and his camp has roughly 24 hours to decide their next move.
Also worth noting from the Daily News report is a comment made by a Yankees official in response to A-Rod's spiel following his rehab game on Friday night.
“This is typical Alex,” one Yankee official told the Daily News. “Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he blames everybody else. It wasn’t the Yankees who introduced [Rodriguez] to Anthony Bosch. It wasn’t the Yankees who introduced him to Dr. Galea, or anybody else.” (The official was referring to Rodriguez’s association with Bosch, who is believed to have distributed performance-enhancing drugs to scores of athletes, and to Galea, a human growth hormone proponent who treated Rodriguez in 2009.)
[Jeff Passan: A-Rod only cares about his money]
All valid points, I'd say.
Of course it'll be business as usual for A-Rod tonight as he's scheduled to make his second rehab appearance at Trenton. After that his plan is to return to the Yankees lineup on Monday, but it's still anybody's guess what the next 24-48 hours will hold.
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