NEW YORK (CNN) — An arbitrator Saturday upheld most of New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez's 211-game doping suspension, keeping him out of the 162-game 2014 regular season and the postseason.
The ruling by Major League Baseball arbitrator Fredric Horowitz will not only cost Rodriguez $25 million in salary, it also further clouds the all-star career of a player who will turn 40 during the 2015 season.
The most severe punishment in baseball history for doping, the 162-game suspension highlights baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's recent high-profile crackdown on performance-enhancing drugs.
Rodriguez, one of the best players of his generation who was once considered an automatic Hall of Fame candidate, was defiant in a statement released Saturday. He will likely appeal in federal court.
When the suspension ends in 2015, Rodriguez will be owed $61 million in a contract that runs through 2017.
Rodriguez, one of 14 players suspended in the Biogenesis scandal, was the only one who appealed his suspension. Though he was suspended in August, Rodriguez played out the 2013 season because of the appeal.
Rodriguez, 38, is fifth on MLB's list of all-time home run leaders, just six runs behind Willie Mays.
Rodriguez, who has claimed he was the target of a MLB "witch hunt," will probably appeal Horowitz's decision in the courts or to seek to delay the suspension.