Alex Rodriguez obviously wanted his personal doctor, Dr. Michael Gross, to appear on WFAN Wednesday and claim he is fully healthy and does not have a Grade 1 quad strain, contrary to the New York Yankees’ diagnosis. Now that he has attempted to make a point, Rodriguez wants to move forward.
On Thursday, A-Rod released a statement making it sound like Wednesday’s events stemmed from mere confusion.
“I think the Yanks and I crossed signals,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t want any more mix ups. I’m excited and ready to play and help this team win a championship. I feel great and I’m ready and want to be in the lineup Friday night. Enough doctors, let’s play.”
Of course, A-Rod was the one who brought the second doctor into the picture in the first place. Brian Cashman said on Wednesday that Rodriguez violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement by not informing the Yankees that he was seeking a second opinion. On Thursday, Joel Sherman of the NY Post cited a source who claims A-Rod did inform the team, but that the timeline of events is muddled.
Rodriguez reportedly reached out to team president Randy Levine, but not until 11 p.m. on Tuesday. At that point, he had supposedly already met with a doctor for a second opinion on the MRI. According to CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman, A-Rod was evaluated again on Thursday.
What the hell is going on? We have no idea, and I’m not convinced A-Rod or the Yankees do either. At this point we can do nothing but wait and see if he appears in the lineup at some point in the near future. With the way things have gone, I wouldn’t bet on it either way.
