LAST DANCE? Alex Rodriguez flips his bat after walking one of his four times last night in a rehab game, perhaps his final game before a significant MLB suspension. (AP)
Alex Rodriguez struck out even before he got on the field yesterday.
Facing an historic suspension in the wake of Major League Baseball’s investigation into Biogenesis, Rodriguez personally reached out to the Yankees yesterday in hopes of working out a deal on the remainder of his contract, according to sources.
Not surprisingly, the Yankees weren’t interested in discussing anything with the third baseman, who is owed about $97 million through 2017.
When asked last night whether he had contacted the team yesterday, Rodriguez said “No” and then backtracked.
“I’m going to let those guys take care of what they need to take care of,” Rodriguez said. “I’m not going to address anything like that.”
In addition, Players Association executive director Michael Weiner contacted MLB on Rodriguez’s behalf yesterday to discuss a possible settlement of his suspension, sources told The Post. MLB officials made it clear to Weiner unless they have a total shift of heart they have grown tired and frustrated dealing with Rodriguez’s camp and have no intentions of discussing or mitigating his suspension.
MLB is expected to suspend Rodriguez today or, much more likely, tomorrow for the rest of this season and all of 2014, covering upwards of 210 games. It was believed if the A-Rod camp had been more cooperative with MLB officials there would have been consideration of making the penalty 150-175 games instead. It remained a slim possibility commissioner Bud Selig still could deliver a lifetime ban.
Despite the uncertainty, Rodriguez vowed to meet the Yankees in Chicago tomorrow when they face the White Sox.
“I’m flying to Chicago,” Rodriguez said.
Whether he is allowed to play remains very much in doubt.
Rodriguez and his camp have vowed publicly to fight any suspension, and if he is penalized solely under the Joint Drug Agreement, Rodriguez would be allowed to play for the Yankees while he awaited his appeals hearing.
But the prospect of a suspended Rodriguez suiting up for the Yankees is not palatable to the league, and therefore Selig appears likely to also use the “best interests of baseball” clause in the Basic Agreement to prevent Rodriguez from playing during until an arbitrator makes his ruling.
On the field for Double-A Trenton last night, the 38-year-old walked four times, scored and looked OK in seven innings at third base. He is planning on working out in Trenton today and then heading to Chicago.
Rodriguez has infuriated MLB and the Yankees throughout the Biogenesis investigation and did so again after Friday night’s game in Trenton, when he all but accused the league and the Yankees with conspiring against him to void the remainder of his contract.
Yankees officials haven’t seemed particularly interested in his progress rehabbing a strained left quad.
“If you’re asking if I got a call from [Yankees general manager Brian Cashman] or anyone from New York… I didn’t,” Trenton manager Tony Franklin said before last night’s game against Reading.
During Friday’s press conference, Rodriguez delivered thinly veiled criticisms of MLB and the Yankees that further hardened those entities from working with him on suspension or contract settlements.
“There’s a lot of layers,” Rodriguez said Friday. “I will say this: There’s more than one party that benefits from me not ever stepping back on the field. That’s not my teammates and it’s not the Yankee fans.” When asked who the parties were, Rodriguez said: “I can’t tell you that right now. … And I hope I never have to.”
But he made it fairly clear who he was talking about. And last night, when asked what he would tell his family of his situation, Rodriguez responded with a wide-ranging answer.
“I plan to sit my girls down with [ex-wife] Cynthia, and we’re going to have a lengthy conversation,” Rodriguez said. “And I’ll have the opportunity to tell it all, at some point. I’ll have that platform, and at that point I’ll tell my full story.”
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