I offer this from Pete Abraham’s Twitter feed, but I’m not trying to single Pete out. Many people have made such comments this morning, so I use his as mere example:
Is there a downside at this point to the #Yankees taking legal action to void A-Rod’s contract?
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) January 29, 2013
The downsides:
- The could lose the suit because anyone can lose any suit;
- They could lose the suit in such a way that actually creates legal precedent that makes it harder to go after drug users or otherwise misbehaving players;
- Win or lose they will cost themselves millions if not tens of millions in legal fees;
- If they lose they have a player under contract who is alienated from the team to the nth degree, making life much harder;
- Win or lose their employees will miss tons of work for depositions, preparation and the like;
- Win or lose a lawsuit may cause potential free agents to avoid the Yankees because they believe, rationally or not, that the team is just waiting to pounce on its players in the event they make any missteps.
- Mostly, though, because lawsuits are awful;
As for winning or losing: there is a means for a PED-user to have his contract voided: being disciplined three times, which leads to a lifetime ban. For the Yankees to attempt to void the deal now is the equivalent of that, financially speaking, and I’d have a hard time seeing a court or an arbitrator agree that they can simply leapfrog over two suspensions like that to cost A-Rod the $114 million left on his deal.
If there is discipline, it will be a 50-game suspension. And it may not happen at all. Let’s not jump the gun here.