7:00pm: Joel Sherman reports the Yankees have been informed by the league that A-Rod will be suspended tomorrow, but Bud Selig will not invoke the “integrity of the game” power and ban him from playing during the appeals process. Barring a new injury, he’s going to be in the lineup tomorrow night against the White Sox.
10:00am: Via T.J. Quinn & Andrew Marchand: MLB will indeed suspend Alex Rodriguez on Monday for his ties to Biogenesis, and it’s likely to be a 212-game ban that keeps him out through 2014. The commissioner’s office is expected to prevent Alex from playing during the appeals process by invoking its power to protect the integrity of the game. A grievance will follow and “it could get very, very ugly,” according to the ESPN scribes.
A-Rod played in his second and final minor league rehab game with Double-A Trenton yesterday, and afterwards he said he was flying to Chicago to meet the Yankees for their series opener against the White Sox on Monday. Obviously he won’t actually rejoin the team if the report is correct. Rodriguez will lose roughly $34.2M in salary as a result of the suspension, but more importantly, his career will be over. Players in their late 30s don’t miss two full seasons and come back strong.
Eleven other players are expected to be suspended Monday as well, including Frankie Cervelli. He’ll likely receive a regular ol’ 50-game first-time ban, which he could serve this year and return to the team on Opening Day next year. Suspended players don’t count against the luxury tax, which would be huge for the Yankees given their plan to get under the $189M luxury tax threshold next year. Obviously A-Rod is more significant in that regard than Cervelli.
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