This was a battle that folks should’ve seen coming from the start. Yankees vs Arod is about to commence, because it’s conspiracy time.
According to a source the disgraced 3rd baseman who is also rehabbing from a hip injury feels the Yankees are intentionally slowing his return to the starting roster so that they can have him declared medically unfit to play this season, thus enabling them to recoup 80 percent of his $28 million salary through insurance.
All this comes courtesy of ESPN New York and the source elaborated:
“Alex thinks there’s something really off about this situation,…Here we have a doctor declaring him fit to play. You think they would be happy about that.”
Instead, Rodriguez’s tweet Tuesday night — “Visit from Dr. [Bryan] Kelly over the weekend, who gave me the best news — the green light toplay games again!” — was met with an angry response from Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who told ESPNNewYork.com’s Andrew Marchand, “You know what, when the Yankees want to announce something, [we will]. Alex should just shut the f— up.”
According to the source Arod felt Brian Cashman’s reactions to his rehab progression tweets were ‘over the top’ and thus cemented his feelings on the Yankees intentionally keeping him from playing.
The source went on to state that Arod feels the Yankees are delaying his return hoping that time will run out for him to come back for the season, or that MLB will hand down the lengthy suspension as punishment for his connection to the Miami Biogenesis clinic.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman moved quick to dismiss such accusations:
“False and false,…He’s not being slowed down or anything. Make no mistake; if Alex Rodriguez is healthy, we want him, and I want him, playing third base for us yesterday. We’re clearly a better team with him. We’re taking every step in the process, but we can’t have him unless he’s ready. Period”
There’s no question that the Yankees and Arod’s relationship has become significantly severed through the years, from PED allegations to post season slump after slump. It’s no secret that if the Yankees could go back in time and opt not give Arod that massive 10 year contract they’d take it in a heart beat. But instead they’re stuck with their decision.
Cashman and team president Randy Levine had a meeting with Arod on Wednesday evening and the following took place, via Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo:
“Alex called Cashman around 5:30 [p.m.], Cashman got Randy Levine on the phone, and they spoke for close to 30 minutes,…It was a constructive, healthy conversation. Everybody is on the same page. And we’re all going to communicate and work together to get Alex back as quickly as possible. Everyone fully understands the protocol and processes in place. We’re all back on track.”
This could be the start to a long and lengthy battle.