Alex Rodriguez’s appeal hearing against Major League Baseball isn’t quite as over as we thought, as there is still a factor in play that could determine both his future with the Yankees and the Yankees’ financial commitment to him.
Michael Sitrick, Rodriguez’s former public-relations guru, has asked Manhattan federal Judge Edgardo Ramos, who ruled against him a few weeks ago, to issue a stay (or delay) until his appeal (in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals) is decided.
MLB subpoenaed Sitrick in the hopes he could provide evidence proving MLB’s allegation Rodriguez obstructed the league’s investigation into Biogenesis, the shuttered South Florida anti-aging clinic — a critical part of Rodriguez’s 211-game suspension.
According to Sitrick’s filing, an attorney representing MLB asserted that, while the case formally closed on Nov. 21, independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz agreed to “entertain an application by the Office of the Commissioner to reopen the record based on the results of our continuing efforts to enforce the subpoena served on Mr. Sitrick [as modified].”
MLB has asserted Rodriguez, with the assistance of Sitrick, leaked Biogenesis documents to Yahoo! Sports in order to draw attention to Biogenesis clients Ryan Braun and Francisco Cervelli and alleviate the focus on A-Rod, who already had been identified in a Miami New Times story as an alleged Biogenesis customer.
Sitrick lost his initial battle on this front on Nov. 19, when Ramos ordered him to testify.
Horowitz is expected to issue his ruling in January.