With Alex Rodriguez accepting his 162-game suspension for the 2014 season which includes the playoffs, and the New York Yankees coming off of a successful offseason that saw them improve in a lot of areas, team captain Derek Jeter believes the team will have to find a way to move on without their embattled third baseman.
Rodriguez was originally suspended for 211 games in August for his connection to the now-defunct Biogenesis clinic and performance enhancing drugs until arbitrator Frederic Horowitz reduced the ban to the full 2014 season.
Rodriguez filed lawsuits in Manhattan against Major League Baseball and the Player's Association, but later dropped them and opted to accept the ban which is the longest PED-related suspension in the history of the MLB.
ESPN reports that Jeter spoke at the Yankees minor league complex on Monday and said that he had texted with A-Rod since his decision to drop the suits. With the lawsuits dropped and the suspension drama behind him, A-Rod will spend 2014 on the sidelines while Jeter believes that he and the team will attempt to move on without Rodriguez.
"He's not here for this season, so we're going to have to find ways to win with the team that we have,'' Jeter said Monday at the Yankees' minor league complex, according to ESPN. "It's a complicated situation, but it's pretty much played out. That's what has happened.''
Jeter deflected questions about Rodriguez dropping his lawsuits, saying that it's up to A-Rod to speak for himself about the decision he made.
"You'd have to ask him how he feels about it, if he's glad that it's over with,'' Jeter said via ESPN. "It's a situation that he has to deal with. Now it's over and it's done with, and we'll move on from there. But you'd have to ask him how he feels about that.''
Rodriguez will be 39 when he's eligible to return in 2015, and he will be owed $21 million in 2015 and then $20 million in each of the final two seasons of his record ten-year $275 million deal.
Jeter, meanwhile, will look to stay healthy and help the team in any way possible after he was limited to just 17 games last season due to injuries and hit .190 with one homer and seven RBIs. The Yankees missed the playoffs in 2013 for the first time since 2008 and will look to avoid missing the playoffs for a second consecutive season.
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