Alex Rodriguez could top lost-salary list

Major League Baseball Monday is expected to hand down suspensions of the remaining players linked to the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal, including Alex Rodriguez.

While 2011 NL MVP Ryan Braun of the Brewers was already suspended until the end of this season and will miss out on roughly $3.25 million in salary, A-Rod’s lost pay could eclipse $34 million if he’s suspended through the end of 2014.

That figure dwarfs any previous lost salary from a PED-related ban, but there have been some big ones before this year. Here’s a look at the top five, along with their estimated losses in pay.

Manny Ramirez
(nearly $10 million)
His initial 50-game ban in 2009 for taking a women’s fertility drug while with the Dodgers rocked the baseball world, and cost Ramirez more than $7 million in lost pay that season. That made his second positive test less surprising early in the 2011 season while with the Rays.

Although Ramirez initially was meant to serve 100 games, he opted to retire and forgo most of his roughly $2 million salary for that year.

Eventually, he decided to make a run at a return to the majors and agreed to a 50-game ban, served while on a minor league deal with the Athletics that was worth $500,000 if he made it to the big leagues. He was not called up and has not played in the majors since.

Melky Cabrera
($1.85 million)
Cabrera was the NL leader in batting average and had just won All-Star MVP honors when he was suspended nearly one year ago. Even when eligible to return, the Giants did not activate him for the postseason en route to a World Series crown. He also is linked to Biogenesis.

J.C. Romero
($1.25 million)
Romero was banned 50 games before the start of the 2009 season. He returned to his role as reliable reliever for the Phillies with a 2.70 ERA in 21 games, but over the next three seasons his cumulative ERA ballooned to 4.66.

Guillermo Mota
($1.2 million)
When he was with the Mets, Mota became one of the first to be banned for 50 games and missed out on nearly $600,000 in salary. After seemingly staying clean for 5 1/2 years, he was banned 100 games early in 2012 for the Giants, but returned before the playoffs.

Neifi Perez
($1.19 million)
Perez amassed three suspensions as a major leaguer. The first brought no penalty, but the second one handed down on July 6, 2007, cost him 25 games. Before that one was up, he was banned another 80 games that would have carried into the 2008 season, but he never played again.