New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is suing Major League Baseball. The lawsuit, filed late Thursday night, claims the MLB bought the cooperation of key witness Anthony Bosch to force Rodriguez out of baseball, the New York Times reports.
Rodriguez alleges an MLB investigator paid Bosch, the head of the now-closed Biogenesis clinic, $150,000 in cash for the records implicating Rodriguez in the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
"Among the allegations, Rodriguez's lawyers wrote that Major League Baseball had paid Bosch...a total of $5 million in monthly installments 'to buy his cooperation,' citing 'at least one individual who claims to have knowledge of Mr. Bosch's deal,'" The Times wrote on Friday. "The lawyers said that baseball also promised to provide security for Bosch, covering his legal bills and indemnify him from civil liability stemming from the case."
The lawsuit also accuses the MLB of "tortious interference" for meddling with "Rodriguez's existing contracts and future business relationships," according to The Times.
Commissioner Bud Selig is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
"The entire legal dynamic is very complex, and my legal team is doing what they need to in order to vindicate me and pursue all of my rights," Rodriguez said in a statement, via The Times. "This matter is entirely separate from the ongoing arbitration. I look forward to the arbitration proceedings continuing, and for the day to come when I can share my story with the public and my supporters."
MLB officials haven't commented on the lawsuit.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, is in the middle of appealing his 211-game suspension. The legal teams for Rodriguez and the MLB are in arbitration, where each side will argue their case for whether there's enough evidence to warrant the lengthy suspension.
