Yankees Outside A-Rod's Circle of Trust

The latest, most worrisome crisis for the New York Yankees began when the brother of Alex Rodriguez thought it would be a bright idea to send a flare to the media that A-Rod would soon be having surgery on his hip, and would be out of commission for a minimum of 10 weeks.

This was news to the Yankees, who apparently were not included in A-Rod's circle of family and friends.

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What followed in the days after A-Rod's brother Joe Dunard told a reporter from ESPNdeportes.com about the upcoming surgery is a remarkable study in the dysfunctional relationship between the most gifted player in baseball and the team that must pay him $275 million over 10 years.

It's astonishing that after all the angst A-Rod has caused himself and his employers over the years, he still managed to heap unwanted drama on what could very well be a defining period in the Yankees dynasty. People in the upper echelon of the club's hierarchy are livid over how word of A-Rod's injury leaked out; they believe A-Rod instructed his brother to also tell Dominican Republic general manager Stan Javier that surgery was scheduled for Monday in Colorado, information later shared with players as they prepared for the World Baseball Classic.

Why did Rodriguez not think it wise to inform the Yankees first? He had to know the disclosure was inflammable material, capable of spreading with the flick of a lit match. One Yankee executive flippantly told me A-Rod must have been in need of attention, what with agent Scott Boras busy taking care of Manny Ramirez, another high-maintenance client. This person was only half-joking.

But how else to explain someone paid by A-Rod (and you better believe the brother is on the payroll) running to the media with information that carried such heavy consequences? It may very well have been true at the time, in the hours before A-Rod had a cyst that had been festering since last season drained, but the Yankees deserved to be the first call on his speed-dial.

Now the club is once again operating at a high stage of alert, searching for a solution that suits both player and team, employee and employer. Shortly after A-Rod's brother spilled the beans, the Yankees took over and said no, no, no -- the torn labrum in their All-Star third baseman's right hip would be treated conservatively, a course of action that would hopefully allow him to avoid the operating room until the end of the season. But late Saturday afternoon, there were signs that someone was urging A-Rod toward the operating table. While the Yankees continued to say they were studying all options from every side, it appeared A-Rod will have surgery sooner rather than later.

"We've got to be realistic, it's going to blow sometime," said New York general manager Brian Cashman. "I'll have my opinions, the Steinbrenner family will have their opinions, but ultimately, this is Alex's career and this is his life. We're making sure everybody understands the benefits and risks. It's a pretty enormous task."

It's fair to wonder who exactly is calling the shots. How much control do Hal and Hank Steinbrenner have over their employee's highly-insured body? They are the ones who, in November of 2007, decided to award him with an obscene $275 million, along with an additional $30 million in bonuses if and when he broke the all-time home run record. Now that Rodriguez has admitted to using illegal steroids, the record and the "A-Rod brand" the Yankees planned to market are hollow, but they're still beholden to him for another nine years.

This season alone the Steinbrenners must pay A-Rod $32 million, a record amount. (The Yankees are still quite good at some things.) It's reasonable for them to want their most valuable asset in the lineup as often as possible. If he has surgery and it is limited to treating just the torn labrum, A-Rod could miss four to six weeks. If the hip joint needs to be repaired, he might be out of commission until late July or August.

Theoretically, Rodriguez ought to have the final call over what happens to his body, but while professional athletes are no longer considered chattel, they don't have complete freedom, either. There is a reason language in their contracts prohibits them from skydiving and snowboarding. Surgery, of course, is a far different horse, but if you don't think teams have a very loud say in how close a player gets to a scalpel, you haven't been paying attention to the Yankees' 24-7 crisis confabs concerning A-Rod.

As of Saturday night, Rodriguez had yet to issue a public statement about his future, and just as the cousin who once shot him up with steroids has been banished from his side, the chatty brother has now been muzzled. The Yankees say A-Rod will remain in Vail, Colo., for the "foreseeable future," close to Dr. Marc Philippon, the hip specialist who drained the cyst. Philippon has told the Yankees Rodriguez has a "75- to 80-percent chance" of getting through the entire season despite the labrum tear. But are the Yankees and A-Rod willing to risk that 15-20 percent window of disaster occurring with one wrong swivel at the plate or lunge in the field?

"Alex is our future," Cashman said. "What's best for him is best for us."

Cody Ransom, best known for his 60-inch vertical leap, is an emergency filler at third, the best bet for the Yankees at the moment. Cashman and manager Joe Girardi put on happy faces when they speak of Ransom's sure glove, but Cashman still sleeps with his BlackBerry, a trade at his fingertips.

While A-Rod's situation is far more dire considering his stature in the game, some of the sky-is-falling commotion is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding Jason Giambi in the summer of 2004. Those of us covering the team will never forget Giambi going from doctor to doctor, seeking an answer to whatever it was making him feel weak and exhausted.

This was back in the days when George Steinbrenner still roared commands and threats at his players, often via the back pages of New York newspapers. As Giambi continued to suffer from mysterious lethargy, Steinbrenner ordered Giambi to "get back out there," adding that there was "no reason for him not to be out there."

Eventually the Yankees announced Giambi was suffering from an intestinal parasite, an affliction that pitcher Kevin Brown later curiously contracted. And eventually after the Yankees' announcement, the New York Daily News revealed Giambi was receiving treatment for a benign tumor in his pituitary gland, a condition associated with the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.


This is not to suggest A-Rod's cyst and the tear in his hip are related to his own use of steroids, though he did open up the door for speculation by admitting he not only juiced, but chose his banned drugs and how they were administered in such a haphazard manner.

It is, however, fair to draw the line between the hysteria the Yankees are dealing with this spring and what happened five seasons ago, when they were caught off guard by Giambi's health issues. Despite winning four World Series titles in five years with a harmonious mixture of All-Stars and role players such as Scott Brosius, George Steinbrenner took a shine to sluggers with massive muscles and personalities to match, and gave Giambi a contract worth $120 million, an albatross the Yankees never could shake.

The Boss' sons control the wands now, with Hank and Hal lusting after the same shiny stars. Rodriguez has been plenty durable over the years but if his body starts breaking down at age 33, the Yankees can only imagine what life will be like when he is pushing 40 and he's still on the books. It is too early to know if his hip condition is similar to the one that severely impaired the career of two-sport All-Star Bo Jackson, if it is comparable to the painful injury that curtailed the 2008 season of Boston's Mike Lowell.

But what the Yankees do seem to know, what Rodriguez and his camp seem to be trying to tell them, is this: surgery is nigh, send up the flares.