Alex Rodriguez faces 214-game ban, suspension to come Monday, reports say

sportingnews.com If Alex Rodriguez had a shot to argue his way out of a suspension that apparently will last through the 2014 season, according to the New York Daily News, he blew it on Friday night. Now, the 38-year-old New York Yankees third baseman is faced with, at minimum, a 214-game ban, according to the report. ESPN also reports that Rodriguez will be suspended on Monday, likely through the end of the 2014 season. Rodriguez's camp expects the suspension to be done using the Collective Bargaining Agreement and drug agreement, meaning Rodriguez could not play with the Yankees on Monday, Yahoo! Sports Jeff Passan reports.

From the Daily News: According to the source, Players Association chief Michael Weiner reached out to MLB on behalf of Rodriguez Saturday morning in an attempt to talk settlement but was told that baseball is no longer interested in negotiating with the disgraced third baseman. “They asked for a meeting this morning and were told ‘no,’ ” said the source. “Baseball is more than comfortable with what they have.” And: “This is typical Alex,” one Yankee official told the Daily News. “Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he blames everybody else. It wasn’t the Yankees who introduced [Rodriguez] to Anthony Bosch. It wasn’t the Yankees who introduced him to Dr. [Anthony] Galea, or anybody else.” (The official was referring to Rodriguez’s association with Bosch, who is believed to have distributed performance-enhancing drugs to scores of athletes, and to Galea, a human growth hormone proponent who treated Rodriguez in 2009.) Multiple reports say that the Yankees also turned down a meeting with Rodriguez's camp. The 214-game total comes from the games left on this season's schedule for the Yankees on Monday (52 games) and the entire 2014 season (162 games). Rodriguez has told friends that he plans to appeal any suspension and will "fight to the end," according to Fox Sports.com's Ken Rosenthal. Rodriguez is prepared to fight the suspension in arbitration, according to ESPN.com. MLB offered to drop any lifetime bans if Rodriguez accepted an offer that would have given an arbitrator flexibility to charge him with more than a 50-game suspension, but A-Rod's side turned that offer down, according to ESPN.com. A-Rod's side pointed to clause 7G of the Joint Drug agreement that states PED users can "only" be hit with a 50-game suspension, according to ESPN.com. Rodriguez is among the players facing discipline in Major League Baseball's Biogenesis investigation and he is facing the longest penalty. 12 or so players will be suspended and including some minor leaguers, the total number of players suspended could be about 20, according to ESPN's T.J. Quinn. MLB, according to the Daily News, is basing its suspension on evidence that purportedly shows that Rodriguez violated the drug program on three separate occasions, warranting 50-game suspensions for each violation, and interfered with commissioner Bud Selig’s investigation. Selig was "furious" that Rodriguez had been telling reporters that he would not negotiate, even while his attorneys were looking to make a deal, according to ESPN.com. Reports surfaced earlier in the week that the commissioner's office is expected to declare Rodriguez not eligible to play while he appeals, using the powers of the commissioner to protect the best interests of the game. At immediate issue are comments Rodriguez made after a rehab game with the Trenton Thunder on Friday night. He hit a home run, then said he wanted to play five more years. He also implied that the Yankees are trying to keep him off the field. While he remains on the disabled list, New York is reimbursed for his salary by insurance. "There are a lot of layers," he said. "I will say this: There is more than one party that benefits from me not being on the field. It's not my teammates and not the Yankees fans." Rodriguez said he feels singled out. "I think it is pretty self-explanatory. I think that is the pink elephant in the room," he said. "I think we all want to get rid of PEDs. That's a must. All the players, we feel that way. But when all this stuff is going on in the background and people are finding creative ways to cancel your contract and stuff like that, I think that is concerning to me. It's concerning to present players and I think it should be concerning to future players, as well." Rodriguez was back in action with the Thunder on Saturday night and was scheduled to be off on Sunday. He has said the tentative plan was for him to rejoin the Yankees in Chicago on Monday night. Baseball's highest-paid player with a $28 million salary, A-Rod has three law firms working for him—Gordon & Rees; Reed Smith; and Cohen, Weiss & Simon.