Alex Rodriguez makes yet another misplay in PR battle with Yankees
Presumably there's a place and time in which this must make perfect sense, only not here or now.
On a day he was to spend resting and recovering from the sore left quadriceps he himself reported four days ago, and that supposedly showed as a Grade 1 strain on an MRI three days ago, Alex Rodriguez was frantically contesting the fact he had a sore left quadriceps and the MRI that confirmed it.
Apparently, he'd sent copies of the MRI – or had them sent – to a New Jersey doctor, then conversed by telephone with the doctor, and then the doctor went on New York radio to say, among other things, "To be perfectly honest, I don't see any sort of injury there."
Now, how WFAN knew that Rodriguez had consulted with a doctor unaffiliated with the New York Yankees, and that doctor had a name and a phone number, and that doctor would comment publicly on one of his patients, is left to speculation. That the physician – Dr. Michael Gross – would speculate that the Yankees' prognosis might be inaccurate, or allow his appearance to suggest as much, implied an attempted power play by Rodriguez. If there's a reasonable end game to this, it is possible Rodriguez is
the only one who sees it.
Regardless, the Yankees felt compelled to respond to the day's events. In a statement, Cashman revealed he'd received a text message from Rodriguez on Wednesday afternoon stating he – Rodriguez – had sought a second opinion on his quadriceps.
"Contrary to the Basic Agreement," Cashman said, "Mr. Rodriguez did not notify us at any time that he was seeking a second opinion from any doctor with regard to his quad strain."
According to Cashman, Rodriguez first complained of stiffness in his left quadriceps on July 12, nine days before the MRI. The discomfort caused the Yankees to delay a plan to move Rodriguez from Class-A Tampa to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and therefore slowed Rodriguez's rehabilitation.
"As you know," Cashman said, "it is the Yankees' desire to have Alex return to the lineup as soon as possible. And we have done everything to try and accomplish this."
Rodriguez seems sure the Yankees, like MLB, are plotting against him. And while there is little doubt the Yankees would like to get out from under the last $100 million or so of his contract, they did not come to him with the sore quad. He went to them. The Yankees' plan was to have Rodriguez in Monday's lineup in Texas.
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