ARLINGTON, Texas — The ugly feud between Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees hurtled to a new level of bizarreness yesterday, as the beleaguered third baseman sent a New Jersey orthopedist on a media tour touting A-Rod’s good health as part of a stated effort to return to the major leagues this week.
Naturally, it turned out the suddenly famous doctor, Michael Gross, was fined $40,000 by the New Jersey Attorney General earlier this year for “failing to adequately ensure proper patient treatment involving the prescribing of hormones including steroids” at a wellness center he runs.
Rodriguez, whom the Yankees diagnosed with a Grade 1 left quadriceps strain on Sunday, returned to the team’s minor league complex in Tampa Wednesday after spending two days in Miami. Upon departing the complex after a workout, he said, “I feel great. That’s all I have to say.”
According to a person close to Rodriguez, the soon-to-be 38-year-old notified the Yankees — whom he feels are keeping him on the disabled list so they can recoup some of his $28 million salary through insurance — he is ready to return to the team Friday night, when they play Tampa Bay at home.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman in a statement Wednesday night that he heard from Rodriguez via text message the slugger had retained Gross to review his medical situation.
“Contrary to the Basic Agreement, Mr. Rodriguez did not notify us at any time that he was seeking a second opinion from any doctor with regard to his quad strain,” the statement read. “As you know, it is the Yankees’ desire to have Alex return to the lineup as soon as possible. And we have done everything to try and accomplish this.”
Rodriguez will be re-examined today in Tampa, Cashman added, “as our goal is to return him to the lineup as soon as he is medically capable of doing so.”
If A-Rod felt the Yankees were illegally keeping him off the active roster, he could file a grievance. Or the Yankees even could try suspending him for insubordination, since the two sides have spoken previously about Rodriguez’s predilection for releasing his own medical updates.
Furthermore, sources on each side offered conflicting versions of whether A-Rod actually checked out the MRI exam of his quad strain from New York-Presbyterian Hospital. One person familiar with the Yankees’ thinking said there was no record of Rodriguez requesting a copy of the MRI, though a friend of A-Rod’s insisted he had checked out a copy.
Gross, chief of orthopedics at Hackensack University Medical Center as well as medical director of the Active Center for Health & Wellness in Hackensack, told The Post a common friend (an unnamed physical therapist) connected him with Rodriguez, that he looked at an MRI of A-Rod’s injured left quadriceps and spoke with Rodriguez by telephone.
“I don’t see anything significant,” Gross said of the MRI exam. In their conversation, Gross said, Rodriguez said he was experiencing no pain.
Nevertheless, in the wake of his explosive first interview of the day, with WFAN’s Mike Francesa, Gross attempted to walk back the significance of his words.
“I can’t clear him to play,” Gross said. “I’ve never examined him. He knows I can’t clear him to play. I wouldn’t even call it a second opinion. The Yankees have nothing to do with me. The only thing he said to me was he feels he’s ready to play.
“Chris [Ahmad, Yankees team physician] is a good doctor. I’m sure he did see something. I just didn’t see it. I’m not questioning what he saw. I’m not questioning his judgment. I’m not trying to contradict him at all.”
While the second-opinion protocol is spelled out in the Basic Agreement, as Cashman said, the only written penalty for such a transgression is the player has to pay his own expenses. Nevertheless, that Rodriguez went this route reflects the lack of trust he holds for his employers, who are rooting heavily for Major League Baseball to succeed in its effort to suspend A-Rod for his alleged ties to the now-shuttered Biogenesis anti-aging clinic in South Florida.
On Feb. 13 of this year, N.J. Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa issued an official order of reprimand in which he fined Gross $40,000 for allowing an unlicensed individual to care for patients of his clinic, and for the improper prescription of hormones including steroids.
While working his way back from January left hip surgery, A-Rod played a total of 13 games for four Yankees minor league affiliates this season, and he was showing improvement until he voiced complaints about his left quad. That prompted him to refuse an assignment to Buffalo (with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre) on July 12, and he expressed similar concerns on July 20 and July 21. That prompted the visit with Ahmad at New York-Presbyterian.
A friend of A-Rod argued the three-time Most Valuable Player simply needed a short rest, not to be shut down altogether.
Today will provide more information, and the only certainty is this: By day’s end, A-Rod and the Yankees still will despise each other.
kdavidoff@nypost.com