On today’s episode of ‘Arod vs the Yankees’ the Yankees call out Arod’s recent behavior.
As reported by Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record the lengths Arod has gone to tweet out the progress of his rehab can only be described as ‘bizarre’ .
The tweets Arod made about being cleared to play led to the huge backlash from GM Brian Cashman who took to using vulgar language to express his anger towards Rodriguez.
Not only did the tweets conflict with the Yankees reports of his rehab, but it was followed up by ‘strange’ behavior by Arod:
But they’re (Yankees) also stumped by the slugger’s recent behavior and public comments, which one insider characterized as “bizarre.”
Despite Rodriguez’s optimistic updates on Twitter on Tuesday, indicating he was ready to begin playing rehab games, he told GM Brian Cashman and team president Randy Levine the exact opposite. According to a source, Rodriguez said during a 30-minute conference call, “I don’t know when I’m coming back. It could be in July, it could be in August. It might not be this year.”
That directly contradicts the timetable A-Rod laid out on Twitter, when he announced he’d been cleared by Dr. Bryan Kelly to accelerate his regimen. News of the setback was first reported by the New York Post on Thursday. But as if to dramatize the now-seemingly false announcement, Rodriguez included an Instagram photo of himself chatting with Kelly at the club’s Tampa training facility.
But, again, there’s more to this than Rodriguez was letting on. Kelly, a New York-based surgeon, did not examine A-Rod this week, nor had he been dispatched by the Yankees to do so. The doctor was at the facility only to check in on other players and happened to run into Rodriguez by chance. Furthermore, while Kelly successfully repaired the tear in Rodriguez’s right hip labrum, he’s not the one overseeing A-Rod’s rehab.
“He’s not ready for that, that’s all there is to it,” said one official. So the more pressing question is why Rodriguez would bother spreading good news, knowing it was nothing more than wish-casting – if not a boldfaced lie?
Klapisch also reported that on Tuesday Cashman had grown frustrated after trying to reach Arod for hours through text, call and email and concluded Arod was purposely trying to send a message by not picking up.
While the Yankees have vehemently denied that they’re intentionally keeping Arod from returning. The feeling is that Arod’s camp is pushing the plot of Arod being the victim in this whole situation vs the Yankees.
Essentially we have a ‘he said she said’ battle on steroids (irony?) with hundreds of millions on the line and a lot of mudslinging soon to come.
Let’s face it, without this Arod drama given the Yankees injuries and lackluster play, they’d be as memorable this season as the Houston Astros.
Steinbrenner would be somewhat proud…