If Alex Rodriguez's relationship with the New York Yankees wasn't strained before Friday night, it is now.
The New York Post reported anonymous sources revealing that Rodriguez failed to attend his rehab assignment game Friday night with the Class A Tampa Yankees. He was supposed to play in the game after meeting with Major League Baseball officials about his involvement with the Biogenesis clinic, a now-closed Miami facility at the heart of a performance-enhancing drugs scandal.
And perhaps as equally bizarre is the fact that The Post report refutes an earlier New York Daily News report that Rodriguez was at the game.
According to the Daily News that was originally posted at 12:36 a.m. ET, "Hours after meeting with MLB at an undisclosed Tampa location, Rodriguez trotted onto Steinbrenner Field, the team's spring training site, to the hushed applause of maybe 50 fans. But a deluge delayed the game, which was eventually postponed."
However, sources told The Post that the Yankees' third baseman "never showed up for what was going to be his seventh rehab game, and organization officials were scrambling to find him. Eventually, sources said, Rodriguez informed the Yankees he was not going to play Friday, which infuriated team officials."
The sources told The Post that Rodriguez had enough time to get from his meeting with MLB to go to the ballpark. The Post also said that MLB officials assured the Yankees that the meeting would be done in time to allow Rodriguez to play in the game.
Rodriguez originally infuriated Yankees upper management when he tweeted that doctors had cleared him to play last month after recovering from offseason hip surgery.
Rodriguez, who will turn 38 on July 27, also has the Biogenesis investigation hanging over him, which media speculation has predicted a suspension of 50 or 100 games to those found to be involved.
The Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman have been accused of delaying Rodriguez's return to New York so that an insurance company would pay a far greater percent of Rodriguez's salary this season. The Yankees owe him $114 million over the next five years.
Both sides had said they came to an understanding, but with Rodriguez's absence, that understanding may be that the sides will remain at odds.
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