Brian Cashman is hoping the book that mocked Alex Rodriguez’s relationship with his teammates will help bring the Yankees third baseman closer to them.
The Yankees general manager spoke to reporters yesterday on a conference call announcing Andy Pettitte had re-signed with the team. Predictably the topic of former manager Joe Torre’s new book, “The Yankee Years,” came up. In the book it is reported that teammates referred to Rodriguez as “A-Fraud.”
“I think we’ve gone through so much of the Alex stuff that, you know, if anything, maybe this brings people closer together,” Cashman said.
“There’s always going to be some controversy that surrounds this club. The best way you try to deal with it is to rally around each other the best you can if there’s real feelings there.”
Cashman, who also was criticized in the book, said players pleaded with him to get Rodriguez to stay in pinstripes when he became a free agent following the 2007 season. Rodriguez, through agent Scott Boras, opted out of his contract during the World Series that season.
After ditching Boras, Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $275 million deal with the Yankees, a move that Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera pushed for, according to Cashman.
“It was, ‘We need Alex. We’ve got to have Alex,'” Cashman said. “This is sincere and genuine. They needed Alex and they wanted Alex. That was real and that was not asked for, it was offered up.”
In an excerpt from the book, Torre said Rodriguez brought an attention-craving personality to the dugout that the Yankees were not used to.