## Facts

- Major League Baseball investigated allegations that New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez obtained and used prohibited performance-enhancing substances through Anthony Bosch and Biogenesis, a Florida clinic.
- MLB relied on Bosch’s testimony that he supplied Rodriguez with banned substances pursuant to a dosing regimen during the season.
- MLB presented corroborating evidence, including excerpts from Bosch’s notebooks documenting payments and protocols and text-message exchanges attributed to Rodriguez or devices linked to him.
- MLB also alleged Rodriguez obstructed the investigation through knowingly false public denials and by attempting to induce Bosch to sign a false affidavit denying the provision of banned substances.
- MLB imposed a suspension intended to cover the entire 2014 regular season and postseason, asserting violations of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program and additional discipline for obstruction under a just-cause standard.
- The MLB Players Association grieved the discipline under the collective bargaining agreement and Joint Drug Agreement, disputing both liability and the scope of the penalty.
- The matter proceeded to final and binding arbitration before Arbitrator Fredric R. Horowitz after extensive evidentiary hearings and review of documentary and electronic evidence.

## Issues

1. Whether MLB proved by clear and convincing evidence that Rodriguez used or possessed prohibited substances in violation of the Joint Drug Agreement despite the absence of a positive drug test.
2. Whether Rodriguez engaged in obstructive misconduct connected to MLB’s investigation and whether such conduct was independently disciplinable under the parties’ agreements and just-cause standards.
3. Whether a suspension covering the entire 2014 regular season and postseason was supported by just cause and consistent with the negotiated penalty framework.

## Decision

- The arbitrator found MLB proved by clear and convincing evidence that Rodriguez used and possessed prohibited performance-enhancing substances in violation of the Joint Drug Agreement.
- The arbitrator credited Bosch’s account as sufficiently corroborated by notebooks, text messages, and reasonable inferences from the record as a whole.
- The arbitrator rejected the argument that a positive analytical test was required to establish a violation where the agreement permitted proof by other reliable evidence.
- The arbitrator found Rodriguez engaged in obstruction-related misconduct, including attempts to procure false statements and actions intended to interfere with fact-finding.
- The arbitrator upheld a suspension effectively removing Rodriguez from all play during the 2014 regular season and postseason as supported by just cause, while not fully adopting the league’s original 211-game measure.

## Legal Principles

- Where the governing labor agreement permits it, PED violations may be proven by clear and convincing non-analytical evidence, including testimony, documents, electronic communications, and circumstantial inferences.
- An arbitrator may credit testimony from a cooperating witness when supported by independent corroboration and internal consistency, notwithstanding motives to cooperate or prior misconduct.
- The absence of a positive drug test is not dispositive if the record otherwise establishes prohibited use or possession to the required standard of proof.
- Obstructing or attempting to corrupt an investigation (including inducing false affidavits or materially false statements) can constitute independent disciplinable misconduct and an aggravating factor in penalty assessment.
- In assessing just cause, an arbitrator may consider baseline penalty schedules alongside aggravating circumstances and may sustain severe discipline when supported by proven repeated violations and interference with enforcement.

## Conclusion

The arbitrator sustained a season-long suspension after finding, by clear and convincing evidence, that Rodriguez violated the Joint Drug Agreement through prohibited substance use and possession and committed obstruction that aggravated the misconduct, permitting a penalty exceeding baseline first-offense sanctions under a just-cause standard.


Major League Baseball Players Ass’n & Off. of the Comm’r of Baseball, 132 Lab. Arb. Rep. (BNA) 1397 (2014)