Alex Rodriguez Drops Suit Against Yankees Team Doctor
Alex Rodriguez dropped his lawsuit against the Yankees team doctor Chris Ahmad on Friday in an apparent move toward making a comeback attempt with the team next season. Rodriguez is currently serving a suspension because of the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drugs scandal. The suspension will last the whole season.
Rodriguez’s spokesman Ron Berkowitz explained on Friday that the third baseman “has full intentions on playing in 2015.” Yahoo! Sports notes that this isn’t the first lawsuit A-Rod dropped in relation to his suspension from Major League Baseball. The player also dropped suits against the league and the players union several months ago.
Berkowitz added Friday, “All legal matters have been resolved.”
Attorney Alan S. Ripka added in a statement to ESPN on Friday that Rodriguez’s decision to drop the malpractice suit against Dr. Ahmad and the New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center was made “for the sole purpose of having no legal distractions” as he anticipates returning to the league next year.
Ripka added, “He wants to focus on being the best baseball player he can be, the best Yankee he can be, and wants nothing to distract him from those goals.”
Alex Rodriguez is expected to return to the Yankees after his year-long suspension is over. He is owed $61 million over the final three years of his 10-year, $275 million contract with the team. He also has the ability to earn $6 million more if he hits six homers and ties Willie Mays on the all-time list.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi told ESPN that he expects Rodriguez to return. He added, “Obviously, sitting out a year, as players have seen, is not the easiest thing to do. You have to try to stay as prepared as you can, doing whatever it takes to stay prepared.”
According to sources with Yahoo! Sports, that’s exactly what Alex Rodriquez is doing. According to the site’s source, A-Rod exercises two times a day and runs at a nearby track. Toward the end of the summer, the third baseman will pick up a baseball bat and try to go back to training.
Rodriguez has already experienced two serious hip injuries during his baseball career. The second limited him to just 44 games during last year’s season. The lawsuit the player dropped on Friday claimed that Dr. Ahmad misdiagnosed the hip injury that Rodriguez played through in the 2012 playoffs.
Dr. Ahmad’s lawyer, Peter T. Crean, was pleased with Friday’s development. In a statement, he noted that the development demonstrated “that Dr. Ahmad’s care was complete and appropriate.”
While Alex Rodriguez waits out his suspension, the Yankees have played Yangervis Solarte and Kelly Johnson in his place.
[Image by Keith Allison]
