Nashville, Tenn. — Let’s give Alex Rodriguez what he never gets, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.
Because what else do he and the Yankees have at the midway point of what looms as one of the worst contracts in major league history? Rodriguez and the Yankees want to believe that a tear in Rodriguez’s left hip went undetected and explained his clunky swing and worse results late in the regular season and, more important, the postseason.
If that is the case — if we are giving Rodriguez that benefit of the doubt — then perhaps we can even appreciate that he did not try to alibi away his horror-show October by publicly airing concerns about his hip.
At the worst of times, when a prideful, thin-skinned man was being publicly humiliated by first failing miserably on the largest stage, then being pinch-hit for and finally being benched, A-Rod didn’t duck the media, like Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera did during his World Series slump. He faced one brutal question after another about his deteriorating skills and status on the team.
He became the punching bag for a team-wide offensive flameout and it might be, as opposed to say Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson or Nick Swisher, that he had a legitimate excuse. He told the Yankees his surgically repaired right hip wasn’t firing after being pinch-hit for in Game 2 of the AL Division Series, went for an MRI and nothing was found.
It sounds like a shamed man grasping for extenuating circumstances, except eventually a tear, a bone impingement and a cyst were found in his left hip and, well, how do you fake that? Rodriguez had a real issue, a real explanation for going from a decent player — albeit not the star of his prime — to pretty much an automatic out, an empty uniform.
“It’s a likely scenario that the struggles we saw in September and in October are more likely than not related to this issue,” general manager Brian Cashman said.
We will never be sure if the injury was the key element in A-Rod becoming a useless player, just like we will never be positive about whether steroid use led to what is now degeneration in both hips. But for now, this is what A-Rod and the Yankees cling to because the alternatives are so distressing.
Rodriguez is 37. He will be trying to return from a more complicated hip surgery on the left side than the one he underwent four years ago on his right. This comes at a time when his OPS has decreased in each of the past five seasons, when — as always — public sentiment is not on his side.
He is still owed $114 million through 2017. If the postseason was not about his hip, but rather that he can hardly hit any more, particularly righty pitching, then his career is over. In the scenario, the Yankees would have a $27.5 million-a-year salary blockage at a time when they are trying to get under $189 million for 2014 while still pumping talent onto the roster.
It is a pinstriped nightmare of the first order.
But what if, yeah, we give A-Rod the benefit of the doubt? He did return from his last hip surgery rather magically. He drove in seven runs on the final day of the season to reach 100 (in just 124 games) and then had a tour-de-force postseason as the Yankees won the 2009 championship. Maybe that player is gone. A-Rod is due back in June, turns 38 in August.
However, all that A-Rod and the Yankees have now is blind faith that he is not money for nothing, that this hip surgery unlocks the last drops of a productive player for as long as possible, that the $114 million is not charity for a finished player. Cashman did note, love him or more familiarly hate him, A-Rod’s work ethic is “legendary” and this diagnosis provided a tortured man “peace of mind.” So if you give him the benefit of doubt …
“We will not be better for [Rodriguez’s absence] because, despite obviously a lot of the noise that gets surrounded with this particular player, when he’s healthy and we can run him out there, we are significantly better franchise for it,” Cashman said.
Thus, we have yet another last stand for A-Rod, another comeback attempt for his body and reputation. The odds are steep, complicated by injury, age and whatever self-doubt is floating around in Rodriguez’s congested brain.
He will not get the benefit of the doubt — but what if he did?