Yankees, Rodriguez at odds over injury

The bizarre tango of Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees took another strange step on Wednesday with the slugger questioning the team’s interpretation of MRI results, while Major League Baseball continues to assess its case against the third baseman, who is implicated in a doping scandal.

Rodriguez, who has yet to play this season after undergoing a second hip surgery, on Wednesday called into question the results of an MRI that the Yankees said revealed a strained quadriceps that would delay his return to the team.

Dr. Michael Gross, an orthopedic surgeon with Hackensack University Medical Center, told various New York media outlets on Wednesday that his reading of the MRI showed there was no damage to Rodriguez’s quad that should keep him off the field.

Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, who earlier this month made a crudely dismissive response to another assertion by Rodriguez that he was ready to play, said it was the slugger who had complained of the injury that moved them to have him tested.

“As early as Friday, July 12, when I suggested to Alex that we move his rehab from Tampa to Triple-A Scranton (at Buffalo), Alex complained for the first time of ‘tightness’ in his quad and therefore refused to consent to the transfer of his assignment,” Cashman said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Again, last Sunday, Alex advised that he had stiffness in his quad and should not play on Sunday or Monday. We sent Alex to New York-Presbyterian Hospital for an MRI, which evidenced a Grade 1 strain.”

Reuters