NOW LISTEN UP: Hal Steinbrenner (above) met with Alex Rodriguez and told A-Rod he is an employee of the Yankees and must follow the guidelines on injuries set forth by the team. (AP)
NOW LISTEN UP: Hal Steinbrenner (right) met with Alex Rodriguez (left) and told A-Rod he is an employee of the Yankees and must follow the guidelines on injuries set forth by the team. (
)
Alex Rodriguez informed Yankees officials in Tampa yesterday he isn’t ready to begin a minor league rehab assignment because his surgically repaired hip isn’t up to the task, a source told The Post last night.
This despite Rodriguez tweeting a day earlier that he had been cleared to play in games by Dr. Bryan Kelly, the surgeon who operated on him in January. The tweet infuriated general manager Brian Cashman.
“He is not ready to play in games,’’ a person with knowledge of the conversation said. “He is worried about his health.’’
The source also said he has heard speculation Rodriguez could use the hip problem to retire. That would allow him to collect the $114 million owed to him. Should Rodriguez retire because of a medical problem, he would avoid a possible suspension by MLB in the Biogenesis mess. The Yankees would also be able to collect 80 percent of the $114 million from insurance.
Rodriguez, who elicited an expletive in an outburst from Cashman with his tweet, spoke with Hal Steinbrenner yesterday at the Yankees’ minor league complex.
While the language went from X-rated to G-rated, the message remained the same: You are an employee of the Yankees and there are guidelines.
“Alex spoke today with our owner, Hal Steinbrenner, who was working out at the complex. Hal reiterated the way — he did it more professionally than maybe I did — about managing from the top down,’’ Cashman said.
A night earlier, the Yankees GM sent a message to his controversial third baseman to “shut the f–k up” after Rodriguez tweeted he had been cleared to play rehab games by Kelly who isn’t part of the Yankees’ medical staff. That clearly annoyed Cashman.
“He got the message, I know that. He had a nice conversation with Hal, according to Hal.” Girardi said. “Obviously, my message was a different version but the same nonetheless.’’
Steinbrenner was seen at the complex around noon. Rodriguez has been working out at the complex regularly since early May.
Early last evening, Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo released the following statement.
“Alex called Cashman around 5:30. Cashman got [team president] Randy Levine on the phone and they spoke for close to 30 minutes. It was a constructive, healthy conversation. Everybody’s on the same page. And we’re all going to communicate and work together to get Alex back as quickly as possible. Everyone fully understands the protocol and processes in place. We’re all back on track. ‘’
Cashman wouldn’t put an exact date on Rodriguez’s return. The GM was annoyed at what was perceived as a leak from Rodriguez’s camp Monday that he would begin a rehab assignment July 1.
That and being taken away from Tuesday’s Yu Darvish-Hiroki Kuroda pitching matchup to deal with something that evolved out of a tweet led to Cashman blowing his cool.
“I regret the choice of words I used [Tuesday],’’ Cashman said.
The GM said he believes Rodriguez didn’t mean to cause a firestorm with the tweet. Still, Cashman said it was wrong.
“He is not trying to create a disturbance, I know that, but at the same time it affects,’’ Cashman said. “We are managing it from the top down instead of the bottom up. It was an unnecessary distraction. It was unnecessary extra work. Obviously, timing is everything and the timing of that on a certain day, the pressure valve I guess I have which 99 times out of a 100 I roll with it pretty good. I didn’t roll with this one at all. I popped. I sounded off, reality TV at its best.’’
Steinbrenner also spoke with his GM about landing on the back page of The Post for his vulgar word.
“Hal said, ‘I am sure when you said that it would be an issue and you would regret it,’’ Cashman said. “I said, ‘You are right.’ It’s not the normal way I conduct myself. When you are managing something big, sometimes you adjust extremely well and sometimes you adjust not as well as you could have. But that doesn’t change the message. We want Alex back, that’s not an issue. The tweet created issues and I added to the issues by the way I responded to it.’’
george.king@nypost.com