Alex Rodrigues is set to return to the diamond in the spring of 2015, and he’s also looking to cash in on some of these milestones that he’ set to reach, but not if the New York Yankees have something to say about it. Rodriquez signed an incentive-laden marketing deal in 2007 that pays him healthy bonuses for climbing up the list of all-time homerun hitters. If he hits 6 more homeruns, he will be owed $6 million for catching Willie Mays, and then a subsequent $6 million for passing Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds.
The Yankees relationship with A-Rod has soured over the last few years, and they have no intention on paying that money to him because of his PED use and the embarrassment that he has caused the Yankees organization
But the Yankees now consider the marketing bonuses invalid after Rodriguez’s suspension for violating the MLB’s drug policy, the report said. His subsequent tactics to launch attacks against the team and the league only further alienated Rodriguez, and the Yankees will argue that he signed the contract under false pretenses, severing his right to the bonuses based on his lies and eventual admission to the use of PED.
This might actually be a valid claim by the Yankees. They gave him that marketing contract (which he is still owed $61 million over the next 2 years) under false pretense thinking they had a marketing juggernaut, when what the really got was a PR nightmare. No doubt this decision will go to arbitration, and A-Rod will fight to keep his money, even though we all know he doesn’t need it.