More on A-Rod: How Did The Arbitrator Pick 162, Anyway?

| Zuckerman Spaeder Team

After writing a basic primer on Alex Rodriguez’s appeal, there’s one question I’ve gotten more than any other:

Q:  How does the arbitrator have the authority to impose a 162-game suspension on A-Rod?  Doesn’t the Joint Drug Agreement (titled “Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program” and referred to as the “JDA”) specify that the punishment is a 50-day suspension for a first offense and 100 days for the second?

A:  Sort of.  Section 7.A. of the JDA provides that a player who “tests positive for a Performance Enhancing Substance, or otherwise violates the Program through the use or possession of a Performance Enhancing Substance, will be subject to the discipline set forth below,” and those punishments are the ones you see quoted in popular sports media; i.e., 50 days for a first offense, 100 for a second, and a “permanent suspension” from MLB subject to the right to apply for reinstatement for a third.  Id. at 22 (emphasis added).  There’s also a catch-all provision, Section 7.G.2, which provides that any player “may be subjected to disciplinary action for just cause by the Commissioner for any Player violation of Section 2 not referenced in Section 7.A through 7.F above,” and Section 2 in turn covers all Prohibited Substances.  Id. at 25.

Note those italics.  MLB didn’t charge A-Rod with one (or even multiple) test violations; it charged him with generally violating MLB’s Program through the alleged use of performance enhancing substances and suspended him for 211 games.  Now one could argue – and Alex Rodriguez’s lawyers almost certainly did argue during the arbitration – that MLB had no authority to impose a 211-game suspension under the JDA.  The arbitrator thus presumably heard and responded to those arguments; if he refused to hear them, A-Rod certainly has a great argument on his side on appeal pursuant to 9 U.S.C. § 10(a)(3), as I discuss in the previous post.  (I note that, so far, neither A-Rod nor his lawyers have suggested that they were denied the opportunity to make that or any other argument.)

But let’s assume A-Rod made that argument to the arbitrator and lost.  Now the question is:  what must the arbitrator do with it?  The arbitrator’s authority to address grievances comes from Article XI of the Basic Agreement, as previously discussed.  Subsection B, in turn, provides that the arbitrator, after hearing all evidence and argument relating to any grievance, “may affirm, modify, or reverse the decision from which the appeal is taken.”  Id. at 44.  MLB’s decision was to suspend A-Rod for 211 games, and the arbitrator thus modified it downward to 162 games.  A-Rod is free to argue that the arbitrator’s decision to do so was erroneous (or even arbitrary); I’ve already explained why that’s not likely to be a winning argument.

Could A-Rod characterize an argument that the arbitrator “exceeded [his] powers” in imposing a 162-game suspension in light of Section 7.A of the JDA?  He could, but in my experience, courts have generally not been receptive to such an argument.  See, e.g., Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London v. Ashland, Inc., 967 A.2d 166 (D.C. 2009).  The bottom line is that even if the arbitrator disregarded the 50/100/lifetime structure set out in the JDA, that fact standing alone is unlikely to provide grounds for reversal of the award by a federal court.

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Information provided on InsightZS should not be considered legal advice and expressed views are those of the authors alone. Readers should seek specific legal guidance before acting in any particular circumstance.