New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is suing Major League Baseball, multiple media outlets reported Friday.
Rodriguez, who is in grievance hearings related to his 211-game suspension, claims that MLB paid Biogenesis founder Anthony Bosch $5 million help force Rodriguez out of the game.
MLB commissioner Bud Selig was named a defendant in the lawsuit.
Rodriguez played the last two months of the season after appealing the August suspension stemming from MLB’s performance-enhancing drugs investigation of Biogenesis, an anti-aging clinic in South Florida that has since ceased operations.
The Yankees will save several million dollars if Rodriguez is forced to serve the ban.
His suit alleges that Selig and other baseball officials are trying “to improperly marshal evidence that they hope to use to destroy the reputation and career of Alex Rodriguez, one of the most accomplished major league baseball players of all time.”
Rodriguez’s lawyers claim that MLB is making an example of Rodriguez “so as to gloss over Commissioner Selig’s past inaction and tacit approval of the use of performance enhancing substances in baseball (not to mention his multiple acts of collusion), and in an attempt to secure his legacy as the ‘savior’ of America’s pastime.”
Rodriguez issued a statement Friday regarding the lawsuit.
“The entire legal dynamic is very complex, and my legal team is doing what they need to in order to vindicate me and pursue all of my rights,” the statement read.
MLB officials did not immediately comment.
Rodriguez was among 14 players suspended for violating MLB’s drug policy and collective bargaining agreement. He was banned Aug. 5 but appealed the suspension.
The other players accepted their suspensions, including Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun. He was banned the final 65 games of the season.
State authorities in Florida started a criminal investigation of Biogenesis.