ORLANDO, Fla. — How determined is independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz to finish Alex Rodriguez’s appeal against Major League Baseball?
So much so that, once the hearing resumes on Nov. 18, it will keep going — the weekend of Nov. 23-24 included — until Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving.
That leaves multiple involved people optimistic the case can wrap up by Turkey Day, which would in turn give the Yankees some semblance of clarity on the Rodriguez timeline: It likely will take three to four weeks from the conclusion of the hearing until Horowitz delivers his ruling.
The Yankees are financially hamstrung until they know whether they will have to commit as much as $33.5 million of their 2014 payroll — Rodriguez’s $27.5 million annual average value, plus a $6 million bonus if he hits six home runs to tie Willie Mays’ total of 660 — to the player they love to hate.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, is scheduled to meet Friday with Major League Baseball officials as part of a “pre-interview” in preparation to testify at his appeal hearing next week, multiple sources confirmed. Newsday first reported the development.
Nevertheless, it’s still quite possible Rodriguez decides against pre-interviewing — and testifying — if he doesn’t want to take the slight risk of additional punishment from MLB.
As per baseball’s Basic Agreement, MLB is entitled to conduct an investigatory interview of Rodriguez before he testifies in the hearing. If MLB decides that Rodriguez isn’t being truthful in his answers, then MLB could pursue further discipline against the beleaguered Yankees third baseman down the road, after this current case is resolved. Nevertheless, such a maneuver would very likely be challenged by the MLB Players Association, which could accuse MLB of exacting double jeopardy.
When Rodriguez met with MLB inquisitors in Tampa in July, as the Biogenesis investigation was still ongoing, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and stayed silent. This time, if he goes through with this plan, Rodriguez intends to proclaim his innocence to MLB’s charges of using multiple illegal performance-enhancing drugs on multiple occasions and obstructing MLB’s investigation.
If he did sit in the witness chair next week, when his hearing resumes at MLB’s Park Avenue headquarters, Rodriguez would open himself to cross-examination by MLB’s attorneys. He says he has nothing to hide; the MLB attorneys probably wouldn’t agree.