JUPITER, Fla. — Maybe Alex Rodriguez simply forgot who already plays shortstop for the Yankees.
Or maybe not.
Rodriguez praised World Baseball Classic teammate Jose Reyes today, impressed by the player’s speed on the bases in a Dominican Republic exhibition game.
“I wish he was leading off on our team or playing on our team,” Rodriguez said of Reyes.
Except Reyes’ position already is filled by captain and sometime leadoff hitter Derek Jeter.
But it likely wasn’t a slight of his Yankees teammate.
Rodriguez was asked “What was it like, playing with that shortstop?” and Rodriguez asked, “Which one?”
That was in reference to Hanley Ramirez, another super talented shortstop who is on the Dominican team.
This Post reporter said, “Reyes?”
“Ooooph,” Rodriguez said, his eyes growing wide. “I tell you what, I’m jealous of those guys. Their talent is unbelievable, both those guys. I am enormous fans of both of them and they are both incredible kids; baseball is very lucky to have them both.”
Rodriguez was asked if he watched the way Reyes, the Mets shortstop, ran the bases.
A-Rod smiled and said, “I wish he was leading off on our team or playing on our team, that’s fun to watch.
“Anytime you have that type of speed, we have a guy in (Brett) Gardner, that’s probably the most fun you can have is watching a guy like that run.”
The press conference soon broke up and A-Rod sent back word he did not mean anything against Jeter with his comment.
Rodriguez doubled and scored in a six-run fifth inning to help the Dominicans beat the Marlins 10-1. He went 1-for-3 and came out of the game after 4½ innings.
Reyes was 2-for-5 with two runs scored, and teammate Robinson Cano had two hits.