FILE – In this Sept. 14, 2013, file photo, New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez heads to the dugout during their 5-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston. Rodriguez has met with the New York Yankees and apologized to the team as he prepares to report to spring training following his season-long suspension according to a team statement Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson, File)
NEW YORK — Alex Rodriguez met with top New York Yankees’ officials on Tuesday and apologized to the team as he prepares to report to spring training following his season-long suspension for violations of baseball’s drug agreement and labor contract.
A joint statement from the Yankees and Rodriguez said the 39-year-old met at Yankee Stadium with owner Hal Steinbrenner, team president Randy Levine, general manager Brian Cashman and assistant general manager Jean Afterman.
Rodriguez was accompanied by lawyer Jim Sharp.
“Alex initiated the meeting and apologized to the organization for his actions over the past several years,” the statement said. “There was an honest and frank discussion on all of the issues. As far as the Yankees are concerned, the next step is to play baseball in spring training.”
A person familiar with the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity because the release of additional details was not authorized, said the meeting lasted about 90 minutes.
The person said the Yankees said they accepted the apology but maintained that doesn’t mean the team has forgotten about Rodriguez’s actions over recent years. Team officials also said Rodriguez has to make up many things to many people.
New York opens spring training on Feb. 20 at Tampa, Florida, and Rodriguez is due to report with position players and start workouts on Feb. 26. Yankees officials told him he will be treated like any other player at spring training.
The Yankees also said their preference was for Rodriguez to meet with media before the team opens spring training.
In addition, New York told Rodriguez the team does not feel obligated to give him any of up to $30 million potentially due for historic achievements, part of a marketing deal reached at the time of his $275 million, 10-year contract in December 2007. The marketing agreement calls for $6 million payments for up to five milestone accomplishments designated by the Yankees. Each payment is due within 15 days of designation and is in exchange for rights such as using Rodriguez’s name and image in selling licensed goods.
At the time of the marketing agreement, those accomplishments were contemplated to be tying the home run totals of Willie Mays (660), Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755) and Barry Bonds (762), and breaking Bonds’ major league record. Rodriguez has 654 home runs.
A failure to declare a milestone and make a payment likely would trigger a grievance on Rodriguez’s behalf by the Major League Baseball Players Association.
A three-time AL MVP who turns 40 in July, Rodriguez faces an uncertain future with the Yankees, who have said they plan to shift him from third base to designated hitter. He has not played a full season since 2007 because of leg injuries, operations on both hips and the suspension. Still, he is owed $61 million for the final three seasons of his contract.
Rodriguez’s public history with performance-enhancing drugs stretches back six years.
Following a report by Sports Illustrated, Rodriguez admitted in 2009 that he used banned PEDs while with Texas from 2001-03. At a news conference attended by manager Joe Girardi and many of his teammates under a tent behind the third-base side of the stands at spring training in February 2009, Rodriguez said “I didn’t think they were steroids” but also admitted “I knew we weren’t taking Tic Tacs.”
“The only thing I ask from this group today and the American people is to judge me from this day forward,” he said then. “That’s all I can ask for.”
The Miami New Times accused of him in January 2013 of using banned substances he obtained from the Biogenesis of America clinic, and then-baseball Commissioner Bud Selig suspended Rodriguez for 211 games in August 2013 for violations of baseball’s drug agreement and labor contract.
Rodriguez asked the union to file a grievance that led to a hearing, and the penalty was cut to the 2014 season by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, who concluded there was “clear and convincing evidence” Rodriguez used three banned substances and twice tried to obstruct the sport’s drug investigation. The penalty was the most severe in the history of baseball’s drug agreement and cost Rodriguez just over $22 million of his $25 million salary.
After suing Major League Baseball and the union in federal court in an attempt to overturn the discipline, Rodriguez dropped that action and accepted the penalty.
He also sued Yankees team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad and New York-Presbyterian Hospital in October 2013, accusing them of mishandling his medical care during the 2012 AL playoffs, then withdrew the case last June.
Rodriguez met last month with new baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, who headed the investigation that led to the suspension.