Alex Rodriguez’s Infamous 2013 Suspension Almost Caused a Major Dent in His Colossal $450 Million Lifetime Earnings

The steroid era in baseball has tainted the sport in a way that is impossible to get rid of completely. One of the many players who had been accused or had admitted to having taken steroids was Yankees’ third baseman, Alex Rodriguez.

Not only once but twice did Alex’s name come up among the players who took performance-enhancing drugs. In the report by George Mitchell, there were names of 89 players who tested positive for taking steroids in 2003 during anonymous testing. The report got released six years after the tests were done in the year 2009. But that was not the only time Alex got accused of taking growth hormones. 

The third baseman later got tested positive for taking steroids from late 2010 to October 2012. For the same, he got banned for the entire 2014 season of MLB. But another threat that loomed over his head during that time was losing $100 million. It would have happened had the MLB put a lifetime ban on Rodriguez, barring him from professionally playing baseball.

How was Alex Rodriguez about to lose 100 million dollars?

During his time as an athlete, Alex had signed two biggest contracts in the history of Major League Baseball at that time. The former baseball player’s main source of income was MLB, but he also earned a little from doing endorsements. 

When the Biogenesis scandal broke out, almost all the very few endorsement deals that Alex had signed dried up. If Major League Baseball had imposed a lifetime ban on Alex, the baseball player, according to some estimates, would have lost out on $100 million in salary obligations. 

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Fortunately for Alex, that did not happen. But the man got banned for 211 games initially, which later got shortened to 162 games. A-Rod did not get any kind of penalty when he first got tested for steroids. But this time was different.

It was the biggest suspension of the MLB 

At the time when A-Rod got suspended, it was for 162 games. It was the biggest suspension in the history of Major League Baseball at that time. The biogenesis scandal had twelve players linked with it aside from Alex Rodriguez.

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All of those also got suspended for at least 50 games when the scandal came into view.