LOST & FOUND: Alex Rodriguez returned to the Yankees’ spring training facility in Tampa yesterday, a day after sources told The Post he did not appear for Friday’s rained out game. (REUTERS)
A-ROD went AWOL — creating yet another tension point in the already-stressed relationship between the one-time star and the Yankees.
Following Alex Rodriguez’s meeting in Tampa on Friday with Major League Baseball officials investigating his ties to performance-enhancing drugs and Biogenesis, A-Rod was scheduled to play for the Single-A Tampa Yankees.
However, sources told The Post Rodriguez never showed up for what was going to be his seventh rehab game, and organization officials were scrambling to find him. Eventually, sources said, Rodriguez informed the Yankees he was not going to play Friday, which infuriated team officials.
As it turned out, the game was postponed by rain.
But sources said Rodriguez had enough time to get from the nearby location where he was interrogated to the park before any official word had come down about whether the game would be played or not. He was not excused by organization officials from attending the game and, in fact, the Yankees had been told by MLB the interview would be done in a time frame to allow Rodriguez to continue his rehab games. The meeting ended about two hours before the scheduled first pitch.
Nevertheless, the New York Daily News reported he did arrive, writing in yesterday’s editions:
“Hours after meeting with MLB at an undisclosed Tampa location, Rodriguez trotted onto Steinbrenner Field, the team’s spring training site, to the hushed applause of maybe 50 fans. But a deluge delayed the game, which was eventually postponed.”
Reached by phone, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman refused to comment on whether Rodriguez was absent without permission. Both in a pregame statement provided by his spokesman and in a postgame chat with reporters after his game yesterday, Rodriguez sidestepped whether he blew off Friday night’s game without talking to his superiors.
“Look, whatever conversation I had with my coaches and my trainers, I will keep that private,” Rodriguez told reporters. “But [Friday] was rained out. I’m sorry about that. More importantly, [yesterday], we played a full game. Hopefully another full game [today] and then we head north [to play for Double-A Trenton].”
In addition, the AP reported a person familiar with the plans asked A-Rod to travel to Buffalo to play for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre this weekend to try to avoid the rain. The AP source said A-Rod informed the Yanks he was too worn down to make that trip.
“This is news to me,” Rodriguez said when presented with that information by reporters last night.
Rodriguez did not speak to media members publicly on either Thursday or Friday when both his games were rained out. He was in the lineup for the first game of a doubleheader yesterday in Tampa, playing third and batting second. He went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and was hit by a pitch in the Tampa Yankees’ 10-0 win over the Bradenton Marauders. He did not play in the second game of the doubleheader.
Rodriguez is trying to return to the majors after a second significant hip surgery in four years. But his connection to Tony Bosch, Biogenesis and PEDs looms over his immediate future in the game.
MLB has tried to move deliberately to build as airtight a case as possible against Rodriguez, Ryan Braun and the approximately 20 others who have association with PEDs through Bosch’s now-closed anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis. MLB wants to remove as much wiggle room in a potential appeals process as possible. It is believed MLB is near the conclusion of trying to assemble just that kind of case — with the interview of Rodriguez thought to be one of the final pieces.
Suspensions are now anticipated in the next few weeks. Those suspensions would be for 50 games, but could be for as many as 100 or more for Rodriguez or Braun if MLB feels it can prove that pair lied previously about their involvement with PEDs or attempted to obstruct the investigation.
If suspended, most or all of the players will appeal and have their cases heard by independent arbitrator Frederic Horowitz. This process could drag into the offseason and next season.
In the present, Rodriguez is on a 20-day rehab assignment. The thought has been Rodriguez will need the entire 20 days, and if all goes well, it would put him on the field with the Yankees on July 22 in Arlington, Texas.
joel.sherman@nypost.com