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Alex Rodriguez's appeal hearing starts back up today and the drama picks back up immediately. Major League Baseball's Chief Operating Officer and member of the three-man panel that is currently hearing the case is taking the stand as a witness. Manfred is hoping to set the record straight about MLB's investigation into Biogenesis.
This is where A-Rod's lawsuit against MLB comes into play. He accused MLB investigators of paying for information, harassing witnesses, and engaging in inappropriate acts of all kind in order to collect evidence.
"There's a lot of stuff out there about the conduct of the investigation and [MLB] thought this was the best way to lay them to rest," said one of the sources.
Manfred is named only once in the document, claiming that he publicly attacked Rodriguez and asked to release his medical records to the public. He also authored a letter offering to make A-Rod's medical record public as a ploy to make it known once and for all whether the third baseman took steroids or not.
"Rob is being called so he can make it clear that this wasn't personal against Alex," one of the sources said.
While bringing one of the men who is supposed to preside over the hearing in as a witness might be unorthodox, it is believed he will be voting to uphold the suspension, while Dan Prouty, the attorney representing the MLBPA, will certainly vote to dismiss it. Only Frederic Horowitz, the third member of the panel, is supposed to be truly neutral and it's his decision that will determine the fate of Alex Rodriguez.