Alex Rodriguez has been challenged by New York Yankees team president Randy Levine to release his medical records.
Speaking to ESPNNewYork.com, Levine says “Alex should put up or shut up.”
A recent rumor in the New York Times claims that Levine told Dr. Bryan Kelly, “I don’t ever want to see him on the field again,” right before A-Rod underwent hip surgery in January.
Alex Rodriguez’s attorney Joseph Tacopina tells ESPN:
“We will put up, mark my words, we will put up. [Levine] is always a very big talker, but he is going to be humbled eventually. He is acting in a way that if his bosses and superiors and the Steinbrenner family have any sense of decency, if they are true to what the Yankees’ heritage is, they would be appalled with how their president is acting. We will put up.”
Tacopina claims that Levine wants A-Rod’s career to end so the Yankees can collect insurance on the $114 million still remaining on A-Rod’s contract.
Tacopina also claims that the Yankees are hoping to discover PEDs in A-Rod because it would give them the legal means needed to escape the rest of his contract.
Levine calls A-Rod’s lawyers claims “nonsense” and adds, “You can’t even respond to a thing like that.”
Levine says the Yankees want to release A-Rod’s medical files with his permission. The club would release his records dating back to March 2009 when A-Rod underwent his first hip surgery.
Levine admits, “The only records we don’t have are the ones of Alex’s treatment by Dr. [Anthony] Galea. They were unauthorized by the club, but now that he’s put his medical condition into question, he should put everything out there.”
In the meantime, A-Rod is still facing a 211-game suspension for violating the leagues collective bargaining agreement and its joint drug agreement. While he has never tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, he was a patient of disgraced Biogenesis owner Anthony Bosch and his “anti-aging clinic” in Coral Gables, Florida.
Do you think A-Rod should release his medical records for the world to see? Do you think it will actually happen?