Brian Cashman (AP)
A PAINFUL ADMISSION: Alex Rodriguez’s postseason struggles may have been related to an injured left hip that requires surgery, which general manager Brian Cashman (inset) addressed yesterday at the Winter Meetings in Nashville. (
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Alex Rodriguez will undergo extensive left hip surgery in January, but doctors believe he will return to play this season and general manager Brian Cashman says the third baseman’s season is not over before it begins.
However, Rodriguez is expected to miss four-to-six months, will be 38 in late July and attempting to play on two surgically repaired hips, which leads to legitimate questions about Rodriguez missing the entire season.
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“I have no reason to believe he won’t [play in 2013],’’ Cashman said yesterday at the Winter Meetings, where Rodriguez’s hip problem dominated the Yankees’ universe. “All I can do is be guided by professionals. In the field of hip specialists, they say, ‘Yes.’ ”
Rodriguez will undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum, bone impingement and the correction of a cyst. With Rodriguez facing four to six weeks of physical therapy before surgery next month, the earliest return would be May and the latest July. Of course, that’s without more involved surgery or a post-surgical setback.
The Yankees believe the problem contributed to Rodriguez going 3-for-25 (.120) and striking out a dozen times in the postseason.
According to Cashman, Rodriguez mentioned the right hip not feeling right in Game 3 of the ALDS after Joe Girardi informed Rodriguez that Raul Ibanez was going to hit for him in the ninth inning.
“[Alex] said, ‘I think my right hip needs to be looked at.’ I just don’t feel like I’m firing on all cylinders, something to that effect. No complaint of pain or anything of that nature. So after that Oriole game, Alex went to the hospital that night to get an exam, an MRI to his right hip, which was clean,’’ Cashman said. “[We] continued the decision”‘making process of when to play him, not play him. But we felt comforted that he was clean on the exam on his right hip.”
It wasn’t until a scheduled exam by Dr. Marc Philippon in Colorado last month that the problem in the left hip surfaced.
“At that meeting with Philippon, they did redo the MRI. The right hip was fine, but he discovered the left hip was a problem and it was the recommendation that he needs to have surgery.,’’ said Cashman, who sent Rodriguez to see Dr. Bryan Kelly in New York for a second opinion.
Kelly will perform the surgery instead of Philippon, who operated on Rodriguez’s right hip in March 2009. Rodriguez returned in early May and helped carry the Yankees to a World Series title that year. The difference between the two operations and why this one has a lot longer recovery time is the left hip impingement involves bone. In 2009, the impingement was joint related.
According to Cashman, Rodriguez having the surgery and rehabbing in New York is easier on the club than Rodriguez being in Colorado.
So, what does a team that doesn’t have a right fielder, catcher, third baseman and no longer an unlimited budget do?
Cashman said Rodriguez’s surgery didn’t sneak up on him and filling the holes is part of the job.
“It’s just another challenge and responsibility. It’s not a complaint, it’s what you have to deal with,’’ Cashman said. “I can’t tell you what our Opening Day situation will be. It’s not an easy position to fill. We are going to get Alex back at some point.’’
Until that happens, Cashman is open to almost anything except being held up by another team who believes the Yankees are desperate.
While Cashman would prefer not to move the erratic fielding Eduardo Nunez to third, he didn’t rule it out. What he did say won’t happen is Derek Jeter playing third when his fractured left ankle heals.
“No, he is our shortstop,’’ Cashman said.
But who plays next to Jeter and for how long?