The Alex Rodriguez and New York Yankees saga took another twisted turn Monday.
According to ESPN, the controversial Yankees third baseman's legal team is preparing to sue the Yankees team doctor for medical malpractice.
Rodriguez and his lawyers believe that they have evidence that proves their argument that Yankees' team doctor Chris Ahmad misdiagnosed A-Rod's hip injury during the playoffs last October.
The Yankees were eventually swept out of the postseason by the Detroit Tigers in four games in the American League Championship Series, but the most interesting news that has risen in the aftermath of that postseason is occurring off the diamond.
The suit has yet to be filed, as Rodriguez and his lawyers are putting together their case.
A-Rod was just 3-for-25 with 12 strikeouts and didn't have a single extra base hit during the postseason in 2012, prompting Joe Girardi to pinch-hit for him and even bench him during games in the ALDS and ALCS. During Game 3 of the ALDS against the Baltimore Orioles, Girardi substituted for Rodriguez for the first time with Raul Ibanez as a pinch-hitter on Oct. 10. After the game, Rodriguez told the team his right hip, which he'd injured previously, felt "off."
Rodriguez then underwent an MRI to see if he re-injured his right hip, but the results were negative because it was actually his left hip that needed another operation.
Rodriguez then underwent an MRI on Oct. 29 with Dr. Marc Philippon, who did his original right hip surgery, and discovered that his left hip actually needed the surgery. A-Rod and his team are blaming Dr. Ahmad for originally missing the injury to his left hip, according to ESPN.
"He blames Dr. Ahmad for missing his hip injury? He missed his own hip injury," an unspecified Yankees official told ESPN New York last month.
A medical report from the radiologist working with Dr. Ahmad during the Oct. 11 MRI said A-Rod's right hip was fine according to ESPN, but there was no mention of his left hip.
Dr. Ahmad wasn't in the report and had nothing to do with it, but the report was sent to Dr. Philippon who then performed another MRI on Oct. 29.
Rodriguez and his team are claiming that Ahmad had knowledge of A-Rod's left hip injury and need for surgery, but never revealed it to the slugger.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told ESPN over the weekend that he was "no longer comfortable" talking to Rodriguez due to the impending suits. Rodriguez, currently fighting an unprecedented 211-game ban for allegedly violating Major League Baseball's joint drug agreement for use of performance enhancing drugs allegedly sold to him from the now-defunct Biogenesis clinic, believes the Yankees are trying to find a way to banish him in order to take the remaining four-year deal worth $275 million off the team's books for next season.
Cashman, who said he won't say anything other than 'hello' to A-Rod form now on, defended his medical staff in the wake of A-Rod's legal team's claims.
"Our trainers and doctors will continue to provide the best medical care possible," Cashman said to ESPN. "That is for Alex as well as anybody else regardless of what they say and what they do."
Rodriguez, who has only played in 12 games after coming back from the hip surgery and a Grade 1 quad strain setback, is hitting .319 (15-for-47) with two homers and six RBIs. Ever in the center of controversy, he was hit by a pitch from Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster Sunday night, resulting in the ejection of Girardi.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
