Alex Rodriguez will be under the microscope from the moment he arrives at spring training later this month, but the Yankees probably won’t rush to evaluate him.
“I think it’s only fair to see where he’s at physically,” manager Joe Girardi said Saturday at the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new AT&T store at Westfield Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, N.J. “We have to take our time and not make an evaluation too early in spring training, because he hasn’t played a lot in the last year-and-a-half.”
The plan, according to Girardi, is to use Rodriguez at designated hitter and test him at third base early in spring training and then possibly broach with A-Rod the idea of trying first base.
Rodriguez was suspended all of last season for his involvement in Biogenesis, which supplied banned performance-enhancing drugs to players. Rodriguez missed most of the 2013 season recovering from left hip surgery.
Girardi said he has kept in contact with Rodriguez and believes their relationship is on solid footing, even as the organization explores the possibility of voiding bonuses in the player’s contract tied to reaching certain milestones.
“My job is to put our team in the best situation every day to win a game,” Girardi said. “I don’t worry about contracts. I never worry about bonuses for players. I don’t want to know them. All I want to worry about is putting our guys in the best situation to win games.”
Girardi said he would be surprised if the 39-year-old Rodriguez isn’t in the right frame of mind mentally for the start of camp.
“I know he’s working extremely hard, and he wants to get back on the field because we all know that’s what he loves to do and he’s going to do everything he can to help us,” Girardi said.
“To be fair to him, I think you have to give him time, and no matter what, sometimes it takes older players longer to get going in spring training than a 25- or 26-year-old kid. That’s just the nature of the game. I won’t make evaluations too soon.”
One thing that will seem odd to Girardi is opening spring training for the first time without Derek Jeter, who retired after the 2014 season.
“It will seem strange the first day of position players, and when you expect to see [Jeter] in that first group and running the group,” Girardi said. “When he’s not there, that’s when it will really hit me.”