Here’s what to expect on Monday in the ongoing A-Rod soap opera: The Yankees’ third baseman will be suspended, probably through the 2014 season, along with about a dozen other players linked to the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal. Though it was previously reported that a lifetime suspension would be handed down late last week, sources now tell the Associated Press that the announcement will be made at noon EDT Monday. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig reportedly became “furious” and ended negotiations with Rodriguez’s camp on Saturday, after A-Rod suggested following a minor league rehab game on Friday that the MLB and the Yankees are conspiring to cancel his $275 million contract. He added, “I think we all agree that we want to get rid of PEDs; that’s a must.”
The AP’s sources say A-Rod will be allowed to play while he appeals the suspension, so in another major development, he’ll return to baseball for the first time since his hip surgery in January when the Yankees play at Chicago White Sox Monday evening. “I think all of us are curious what’s going to happen; is Alex going to be a player for us tomorrow, and what’s going to happen with the other guys that are involved in this?” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said on Sunday. “Because in my mind I have him penciled in there tomorrow.”
