‘HACK’ SAW: As Alex Rodriguez’s workouts in Tampa (above) build toward a rehab assignment, the Yankees slugger is wading into an incredible drama of a struggling team, a nagging injury and a possible PED suspension. (AP)
Remember Alex Rodriguez’s brain-melting 2009?
The confession to using illegal performance-enhancing drugs as a Ranger from 2001 to 2003? The right hip surgery? Rejoining the Yankees in May and becoming a clutch, likeable player while leading the team to its first World Series title in nine years?
Compared to the drama that now envelops the beleaguered third baseman, 2009 looks like a high school play.
For A-Rod to actually return to the Yankees and help them accomplish a miracle run to the playoffs, he’s going to have to pull off his most amazing comeback yet. It will require the expertise of both his doctors and his lawyers. He must overcome his own physical shortcomings, Major League Baseball’s dogged efforts to suspend him and a general wariness from a fan base that seemed perfectly content with the notion that he never would play again.
Rodriguez’s posse has spread the word that he could start his minor-league rehabilitation clock as soon as next week. The Yankees aren’t signing off on such a definitive schedule, yet they, too, voice optimism about his steady progress. Suddenly, the “after the All-Star break” timeline the Yankees voiced immediately following A-Rod’s January surgery doesn’t seem like the setup for a joke.
Nevertheless, a gulf remains between feeling good at the Yankees’ minor league complex in Tampa and contributing as a major league player. You simply don’t see a soon-to-be 38-year-old with two surgically repaired hips execute great athletic feats, which is why skepticism has surrounded A-Rod’s comeback attempt since the news of his injury first broke.
While he tries to beat the medical hurdles with his body, defeating the legal obstacles will require the brainpower of his team of attorneys, and that’s a matter likely to come to fruition within the next few weeks, when commissioner Bud Selig and his lieutenants are expected to resolve the Biogenesis matter with suspensions. In a manner that will break precedent but is allowed within the collective bargaining agreement, MLB will announce discipline for the players before the appeals process, meaning first-time offenders (as A-Rod would technically be) can stay active while they challenge the penalty.
It’s possible MLB will decide against suspending A-Rod for his alleged involvement with Biogenesis, the shuttered anti-aging clinic in South Florida. That’s a shaky bet, however. We know A-Rod’s name is all over the purported Biogenesis documents and that Biogenesis owner Anthony Bosch has agreed to help baseball’s investigators.
Now, whether MLB has enough to withstand a formal appeal by A-Rod is another issue altogether. We know Bosch is far from an ideal witness, based on his earlier public statements that he had no involvement in drug peddling, and it isn’t clear what sort of evidence Bosch has produced to back his claims. Remember that Ryan Braun won an appeal last year even with a positive drug test, and the attorney who represented Braun, David Cornwell, now works for A-Rod (as well as Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli). The decision ultimately will come down to independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz and whom he believes.
A-Rod hasn’t yet been called in to speak with MLB’s investigators; that should happen soon, before the announcement of any possible suspensions. The CBA states that a player is entitled to an appeal hearing within 20 days of the discipline, and that a decision is due from the arbitrator within 25 days following the opening of the hearing. That means A-Rod or any other suspended players could be going about their work for over six weeks with a suspension hovering over them.
You know the best thing A-Rod might have going for him right now? David Adams. The poor kid looks wholly overmatched as the Yankees’ everyday third baseman, putting up a ghastly slash line of .191/.226/.292. He has set the bar so low that Yankees fans, desperate for an upgrade, might hold their noses and open their minds to a return from A-Rod — who, let’s not forget, still has more job security than anyone else in the organization thanks to his contract that goes through 2017. If he’s even half the player he once was, A-Rod would provide far more value than Adams.
The life of Rodriguez often feels like a movie: one-third psychological drama, one-third action thriller, one-third slapstick comedy. Looks like we’ll be getting a little of each in this upcoming sequence. You can’t see how it works out well for the main character. More important, you can’t wait to watch it unfold.