Derek Jeter says the New York Yankees have no choice but to move forward now that Alex Rodriguez has accepted his suspension for the 2014 season.
Rodriguez ended his extended and acrimonious fight with Major League Baseball on Friday, withdrawing a pair of lawsuits that were filed in an attempt to overturn a season-long ban for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal — the longest penalty in the sport’s history related to performance-enhancing drugs.
“He’s not here for this season, so we’re going to have to find ways to win with the team that we have,” Jeter said Monday at the Yankees’ minor league complex. “It’s a complicated situation, but it’s pretty much played out. That’s what has happened.”
Rodriguez was given a 211-game ban last year by MLB commissioner Bud Selig that was reduced to 162 games plus the 2014 postseason by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz. A-Rod sued MLB and the union in federal court in Manhattan, claiming the arbitration process was flawed. Rodriguez’s lawyers filed notices of dismissal in both cases Friday.
Jeter said Monday that he has exchanged texts with A-Rod since the lawsuits were dropped.
“You’d have to ask him how he feels about it, if he’s glad that it’s over with,” Jeter said. “It’s a situation that he has to deal with. Now it’s over, and it’s done with, and we’ll move on from there. But you’d have to ask him how he feels about that.”
Rodriguez will be 39 when eligible to return in a year. The Yankees owe him $21 million in 2015 and $20 million in each of the final two seasons of a record 10-year, $275 million deal.
