MLB

A-Rod lawyer: Remove Manfred from arbitration panel

The baseball offseason is upon us, yet the Alex Rodriguez saga remains as alive and active as ever, as Team A-Rod and Major League Baseball engaged in a war of words Thursday that culminated in Rodriguez’s attorney Joseph Tacopina calling for Major League Baseball COO Rob Manfred to be removed from the three-man arbitration panel overseeing A-Rod’s appeal of his 211-game suspension.

The Yankees’ beleaguered third baseman initiated the fireworks when he blasted commissioner Bud Selig in a statement released by his spokesman Ron Berkowitz.

In response to the comments made by Selig on Saturday (before World Series Game 3 in St. Louis) supporting his investigators’ efforts into the shuttered South Florida anti-aging clinic Biogenesis, Rodriguez said: “I am deeply troubled by my team’s investigative findings with respect to MLB’s conduct. How can the gross, ongoing misconduct of the MLB investigations division not be relevant to my suspension, when my suspension supposedly results directly from that division’s work?

“It is sad that Commissioner Selig once again is turning a blind eye, knowing that crimes are being committed under his regime. I have 100 percent faith in my legal team. To be sure, this fight is necessary to protect me, but it also serves the interests of the next 18-year-old coming into the league, to be sure he doesn’t step into the house of horrors that I am being forced to walk through.”

Manfred, who has overseen MLB’s investigation into Biogenesis and is viewed as the favorite to succeed Selig upon his January 2015 retirement, responded with a bombastic statement of his own.

“This latest, sad chapter in Mr. Rodriguez’s tarnished career is yet another example of this player trying to avoid taking responsibility for his poor choices,” the statement read. “Given the disappointing acts that Mr. Rodriguez has repeatedly made throughout his career, his expressed concern for young people rings very hollow.

“Mr. Rodriguez’s use of PEDs was longer and more pervasive than any other player, and when this process is complete, the facts will prove that it is Mr. Rodriguez and his representatives who have engaged in ongoing, gross misconduct.”

Tacopina, who has led Rodriguez’s defense as well as launching lawsuits against MLB and Yankees team physician Chris Ahmad, came roaring back with another fiery statement.

“Alex did not use PEDs and Rob Manfred knows it,” the statement read. “The fact that Manfred has committed so zealously to prosecuting Alex for offenses he knows he did not commit is why he persistently attacks Alex’s character with baseless, cowardly allegations.

“With today’s statements, Manfred clearly has hit a new level of desperation. He knows what his sworn testimony was on the subject of his and Commissioner Selig’s approach to PEDs being dealt to children, and MLB’s willingness to turn a blind eye to such criminal misconduct in support of its quest to get Alex. He knows he cannot run from his testimony forever. It will follow him the rest of his career — however long that may be — and he knows it is indefensible. Once it inevitably becomes public through other legal proceedings, he will have to answer for that.

“Rob Manfred has gone so far over the line with his latest slanderous attack against Alex [which presumably was approved by Commissioner Selig] that we demand the other two arbitration panel members immediately remove Manfred from the panel hearing Alex’s appeal. Indeed, we do not see how he can continue to hold any position of responsibility within Major League Baseball. But we will leave that to the conscience and judgment of the owners within the league.”

Manfred serves on the panel alongside Players Association general counsel David Prouty and independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz.

MLB responded in yet another statement: “Mr. Tacopina’s latest rant is so delusional it doesn’t warrant a response. The fact that Mr. Tacopina has now asked for two of the three panel members to be recused tells you everything you need to know.”

The New York Times reported on Oct. 5 that Team A-Rod wanted Prouty removed from the panel.

The hearing is currently on hiatus after eight days of testimony and is scheduled to resume on Nov. 18 at MLB’s Park Avenue headquarters.