While baseball star Alex Rodriguez is still years away from getting into the Hall of Fame, former Yankees catcher and teammate Jorge Posada said that A-Rod's drug-checkered past should keep him permanently ineligible from induction.

Speaking this Wednesday on CBS This Morning, Posada said that “the guys that need to be in the Hall of Fame need to be a player that played with no controversy.” He also wondered aloud whether Rodriguez’s use of performance-enhancing substances led to winning the American League MVP in 2003 over him and said that he had never expressed these views before to Rodriguez.

But just one day later, Posada backtracked with an apology and said that he was “cornered into this answer. I know better. I was really caught off guard.” He also accused the media of asking him “very controversial” questions as he currently promotes his comparatively tame memoir, The Journey Home: My Life in Pinstripes.

Rodriguez has declined to add fuel to the fire, telling reporters on Wednesday that he was “not really prepared to answer those questions” and still considered Posada a friend.

Rodriguez returned to the Yankees last April after missing the entire 2014 season due to his suspension for doping, the longest suspension in baseball history for PEDs. The MLB accused him of using three different performance enhancing drugs over a three-year period, as well as having ties to the former Biogenesis clinic that allegedly supplied steroids to at least a dozen pro athletes.

A 34-page report released in January 2014 also contained numerous doping allegations against him that included secret meetings and using coded language to obtain PEDs. The Yankees designated hitter initially sued to overturn his suspension, but withdrew his lawsuit in February 2014.