Alex Rodriguez is turning into an army of one.
Major League Baseball officials are increasingly optimistic they will reach disciplinary settlements with all of the players they have found guilty in their Biogenesis investigation. All of the players, that is, besides Rodriguez, the Yankees’ beleaguered third baseman, who continues to send signals he will fight the long sentence with which baseball is prepared to slap him.
The suspensions could be issued as early as Thursday, as baseball continues to work toward securing deals for the players. Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli is among the group of about nine players — which includes Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz, Tigers shortstop Jhonny Peralta and former Yankees prospect Jesus Montero of Seattle but neither the previously disciplined trio of Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon and Yasmani Grandal nor Washington pitcher Gio Gonzalez — leaning strongly toward a plea in the performance-enhancing drug case. The players are expected to be suspended at least 50 games (standard for a first-time offense), plus a few more in the cases of those who lied during the investigation.
Yahoo! Sports first reported this development.
While MLB folks hold out hope Rodriguez will agree to a lesser sentence in return for not appealing a penalty, they have received little indication he is prepared to actually do so — even as the other plea deals would further bolster the credibility of star witness (and Biogenesis owner) Anthony Bosch. Commissioner Bud Selig has contemplated issuing a lifetime sentence, yet that would be difficult to support in front of an arbitrator, as Rodriguez is currently viewed as a zero-time offender. A ban of Rodriguez through 2014 appears more likely.
Moreover, Selig has grown so unhappy at the notion of a suspended A-Rod joining the Yankees while he waits for an arbitration hearing the baseball commissioner is seriously considering suspending Rodriguez via the collective bargaining agreement — citing his alleged obstruction of the Biogenesis investigation — rather than the Joint Drug Agreement. The key difference is the former action would bar Rodriguez from playing (and getting paid) during the period when he prepares for his arbitration hearing, whereas penalizing Rodriguez through the Joint Drug Agreement would permit him to play during the interim period.
Article XII(B) of the CBA states: “Players may be disciplined for just cause for conduct that is materially detrimental or materially prejudicial to the best interests of baseball including, but not limited to, engaging in conduct in violation of federal, state or local law.”
There is precedent for baseball to use this rule to punish players. Most memorably, in 2000, Selig utilized Article XII(B) when he suspended Braves reliever John Rocker for 28 days and fined him $20,000 for comments attributed to him in a Sports Illustrated article. Arbitrator Shyam Das reduced the sentence to 14 days and a $500 fine.
Other players disciplined by this measure were Yankees reliever Steve Howe in 1992 for repeated drug offenses and Royals players Willie Mays Aikens, Vida Blue, Jerry Martin and Willie Wilson for pleading guilty to attempting to purchase cocaine.
While the Players Association would work with Rodriguez to make sure Selig did not abuse his power by using such a tactic, this route is far more palatable to the union than the CBA’s well-known “integrity of the game” clause because it allows an independent arbitrator — Fredric Horowitz — to hear Rodriguez’s case. Via the “integrity of the game” clause, which was designed with more serious threats (like gambling) in mind, Selig could both issue the ruling and then hear the appeals case (though the union could jump through some legal hoops to get the case to an arbitrator). In the most recent CBA, completed in November 2011, Selig wrote a letter to MLB Players Association executive director Michael Weiner assuring he wouldn’t use this clause — Article XI(A)(1)(b) of the Basic Agreement — to negate players’ rights.
If Rodriguez lost his appeal through this process, he would continue his suspension counting the time served. If he won the appeal, he would be allowed back in the game and receive the salary he forfeited plus interest. Horowitz also could return a lesser sentence without acquitting Rodriguez, as Das did with Rocker. Nevertheless, given Rodriguez’s reduced physical state, it’s fair to wonder whether he could mount a comeback from a prolonged absence caused by a suspension and whether he could earn the rest of his contract (through 2017) as a physically unable to perform player.
Meanwhile, baseball could reserve the right to suspend Rodriguez a second time for violating the Joint Drug Agreement, citing its purported evidence (text messages, among other items) he purchased illegal PEDs. It also could issue two suspensions at once. When Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun agreed last week to a 65-game suspension, baseball’s press release cited Braun’s violation of both the CBA and the Joint Drug Agreement.
Rodriguez spent about five-and-a-half hours at the Yankees’ minor-league complex yesterday and declined comment as he departed. He took batting practice, fielded ground balls at third base and threw to first and did sprints and agility drills. If he looked nothing like his former self, he at least looked like a guy who actually might be able to help the Yankees.
He might never get that chance, however. Baseball is closing in on him and only him, and it sure likes the idea of locking him out even if his greater fate isn’t decided yet.
kdavidoff@nypost.com
joel.sherman@nypost.com