BOSTON – Alex Rodriguez said he would rather let his lawyers do all the talking, but the embattled third baseman did his share of it following Sunday night’s dramatic win over the Red Sox.
A-Rod, who had twice declined to discuss the comments his attorney, Joseph Tacopina, made to the New York Times on Saturday, finally addressed them after Sunday’s game at Fenway Park.
He cited the confidentiality agreement of the league’s Joint Drug Agreement in dancing around some questions, but he acknowledged that he is filing a grievance against the Yankees for the way his hip injury was treated by the team’s medical staff last October.
“I’m having such a hard time just focusing on playing every day,” A-Rod said. “What my lawyer says, he said. I’m going to stand behind it.”
Among the explosive charges made by Tacopina were that the Yankees hid an MRI showing the tear in A-Rod’s left hip, that the team “rolled him out there like an invalid” during the postseason to make him look bad on the field, and that team president Randy Levine had told surgeon Dr. Bryan Kelly, “I don’t ever want to see him on the field again” before Kelly performed A-Rod’s hip surgery in January.
Asked specifically about Tacopina’s comment that Levine’s words “sent chills down Alex’s spine,” Rodriguez said he would “reserve comment.” When asked who had informed him of Levine’s alleged words, A-Rod said, “I did have a conversation with Dr. Kelly.”
Rodriguez is appealing MLB’s 211-game drug suspension, so he understandably continued to decline answering any PED-related questions. But when he was asked why his attorney is bringing up issues not related to the suspension, A-Rod glared at the reporter.
“What do you think about that?” he asked the reporter.
Rodriguez confirmed that he planed to file a grievance against the Yankees, though he said the players union was “responsible for actually filing that.”
“Yes, it’s in the process,” he said.
General manager Brian Cashman said earlier in the day that A-Rod himself had been “fighting to play” during the playoffs, an assertion Rodriguez did not debate.
“The question wasn’t whether I wanted to play; I’m always going to want to play, even if I’m on crutches,” Rodriguez said. “But science is science. If there was a torn labrum MRI….”
Cashman said no MRI was ever performed on A-Rod’s left hip during the playoffs, as his lone complaint had been about his right hip – the one that had been operated on in March 2009.
“I’m not disputing Cashman,” Rodriguez said. “I’m not disputing anybody. I’m just letting you know what (Dr. Marc) Philippon told me. Two months later, I had surgery.”
A-Rod said he “found out about 10-12 days later after Detroit that I had a big hole in my left hip. Dr. Philippon said I needed to have immediate surgery. So that’s that.”
That “immediate surgery” didn’t take place until mid-January, though A-Rod said that was “the plan.” When it was mentioned to him that the Yankees say there was no MRI taken on his left hip, A-Rod pointed to the injury that ultimately required surgery.
“The MRI is the MRI,” he said, seemingly confusing the matter. “I had a big hole in my left labrum. I’m just telling you what the doctors were saying.
“It was a pretty significant tear. They shaved the bone and put five anchors, so it was pretty significant. I had major surgery.
“Why don’t we let the process play out a little bit? It’s not right now, we’re not in court. When the time is right, Philippon, Kelly, Bosch, they will all talk.”
Although he is currently at odds with the Yankees’ front office, Rodriguez said he is doing his best to focus on the game itself as he tries to help the Yankees get back to the postseason.
“I think it’s just important for me to focus on the team and helping the team win,” he said. “It is a very challenging situation.”
A-Rod and Cashman seem to agree on only one issue: that the other 24 players in the clubhouse haven’t been distracted by the never-ending saga.
“I think my teammates have been great; I think our play has been indicative of that,” Rodriguez said. “I think they’ve rallied around. They understand it’s a process. I’ve had a lot of talks with a lot of our guys, both privately and collectively. I think we’re in a good place right now. I think no matter what happens, all the white noise, whatever is said or not said, our focus is to win games and we’re doing that.”
ESPN reported Sunday that A-Rod had paid Anthony Bosch’s attorney a $25,000 retainer and later sent a wire transfer of $50,000 that the Biogenesis’ founder’s lawyer refused to accept.
“Because of the collective bargaining agreement and the JDA program, I don’t want to breach anything or put myself in a position to breach that contract,” A-Rod said when asked about the report.
A popular theory has been that Tacopina’s comments and the talk of a grievance have been a strategy to divert people’s attention from the suspension and the charges that A-Rod used PEDs between 2010-12.
“I think we all signed to an agreement,” A-Rod responded to the theory. “This is America and we do have an opportunity to protect ourselves. I’ve chosen to take that route. I think we all have to respect that process.”
Given the stunning charges made against Levine and the Yankees, it’s unlikely that A-Rod and the team’s front office will ever have the same type of relationship they once shared. Rodriguez is hoping that someday, things can return to the way they used to be.
“I hope so,” Rodriguez said. “Look, I love this team, I love the fans of New York City. This is a very complicated situation but we’re doing the best we can.”
Told that Cashman had essentially called him a liar earlier in the day, A-Rod once again pleaded to reporters to “let this process play out.”
“I think there’s a temptation with the leaks and this and that and he said and she said; I want to reserve the right to have an arbitration,” he said. “We do have a collective bargaining agreement. I just want everybody to take it easy. When the off-season comes we’re going to have an arbitration. This is not reality TV. We’re going to get in front of Fred (arbitrator Fredric Horowtiz), we’re going to put our best foot forward. So are they. And that end of the day we’re going to live with the decision.”
