BOSTON _ Of all the insults lobbed at Alex Rodriguez through the years, with the bulk of them richly deserved, none probably delivered the sting felt by the words he heard from his own manager before Tuesday's game at Fenway Park.
As promised, Joe Girardi spoke with A-Rod about his plan to play him this week, the final four games of his (Yankees) career, and the conversation did not go well. Rodriguez was told he will get just one start at Fenway _ against knuckleballer Steven Wright on Thursday _ then Friday's goodbye in the Bronx.
The reason? "We're trying to win," Girardi said.
Ouch!
Rodriguez has heard every insult through his PED-stained career, at every stadium. For a while, he was Public Enemy No. 1 on MLB's most wanted list, his reputation demolished by a long and particularly ugly legal battle. A-Rod once spent months trading barbs with the Yankees' front office. On more than a few occasions, he's been rejected by his own fan base.
After 22 years in the spotlight, alternately playing the hero and villain, A-Rod is not someone who is easily offended. But having to ride the bench into the sunset of his Yankees career, in what had been orchestrated as a brief farewell tour, just feels wrong and unnecessary.
One day, Hal Steinbrenner suggests to ESPN that Rodriguez might eventually be deserving of Monument Park, the highest honor for a Yankee. The next? Girardi reneges on his earlier pledge to "find a way" to play A-Rod in his last four games (even if they won't be, in our humble opinion).
We don't get the point of the good cop, bad cop routine with Rodriguez on the clock. Very soon, A-Rod won't be the Yankees' problem. They can't survive another eight at-bats or so? As of last night, the Yankees were facing a 4 {-game wild-card deficit, but with a 1.9-percent chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraph's calculations. Yet, Girardi apparently believes A-Rod is too big a liability.
"It's surprising and shocking," Rodriguez said. "He has his opinion, I have mine. But like I've said from the time I came back from my suspension, it's up to Joe and I'll do whatever he wants ... I'll be ready if he needs me."
If Rodriguez has learned anything in his post-Biogenesis years, it's the usefulness of diplomacy. But sometimes, he can't help himself. On Sunday, amid the tears, A-Rod tugged back at the leash pulling him off the Bronx stage, hinting that he was not entirely comfortable with Hal's blueprint for his future.
It happened again yesterday. Rodriguez said that he expected to play at least two out of three at Fenway with the Red Sox starting left-hander Drew Pomeranz in the middle game. When someone asked why he was best suited to face Wright's knuckleballs, Rodriguez replied, "Maybe a slow bat? A long swing?"
A-Rod could have been going for laughs from the dozens of reporters. But there's also the possibility he was referencing the Yankees' own weak view of his eroded talents. Girardi, in an unusually candid admission, suggested Rodriguez would have a difficult time finding work with another team.
"We started to give the at-bats to other people because of what we saw," Girardi said. "I don't know if there would be a right situation out there for him. He's going to be 42 and he doesn't really play a position, so that's hard for me to say."
In concept, Steinbrenner's offer to let Rodriguez play out the week, then switch to an advisory/instructor role was generous. He could have just cut A-Rod loose without the pomp and circumstance. But Hal settled on a more palatable resolution to the escalating A-Rod issue, and here we are.
It's an awkward place. Girardi counting the minutes until A-Rod's gone, and becoming less guarded about sharing that sentiment. Rodriguez, ironically, feeling cheated. Maybe his real retirement, from the next team, will go more smoothly "I think I can still play," Rodriguez said.
Too bad the guy writing the lineup card doesn't think so.
