Alex Rodriguez & Brian Cashman: Relationship Not Yankee Doodle Dandy

Things between the Yankees and A-Rod are reaching a fever pitch.

If you were unaware that the New York Yankees lightning rod for bad publicity Alex Rodriguez joined Twitter about a month ago, join the club. Considering he’s one of the most well know, and well paid, athletes on the planet, A-Rod only has accumulated a relatively paltry 36,000 followers since his first tweet on May 31st.

You can count Yankees general manager Brian Cashman among those who weren’t waiting with baited breath for @AROD‘s ninth tweet, which came yesterday afternoon. In fact, he was downright hostile to Rodriguez’s announcement that his doctor had given him the “green light” to play games again.

Looks like a real thorough examination.

Now, one would think that Rodriguez rejoining the Yankees as soon as possible would be good news. As terrible as he’s been, he’s being paid $28 million in 2013, so better he at least try to earn those paychecks on the field than rehabbing all summer from his hip injury—right?

Well, maybe. Or maybe not. When ESPN New York reached out to Cashman for comment on Rodriguez’s tweet, he snarled back: “You know what, when the Yankees want to announce something, [we will] … Alex should just shut the f**k up. That’s it. I’m going to call Alex now.”

It was a stunningly angry reaction to relatively innocuous news, but likely was the result of Rodriguez directly contradicting the statements Cashman gave USA Today two days earlier, stating: “He’s getting closer. There no doubt about it. But we don’t have a date for him to start playing games yet.”

It’s just further evidence that the Yanks are seriously fed up with A-Rod. He was benched through most of the 2012 playoffs, required surgery for a hip ailment shortly thereafter, and was again linked to steroids via an investigation into anti-aging clinic by the Miami Herald in January 2013.

Rodriguez’s salary in 2013 is approximately $6 million more than the entire payroll of the Houston Astros. Is it any wonder that Hal Steinbrenner publicly announced the club’s disappointment in him at a press conference in early June? He also made it clear that that Yankees had organization had made their disappointment very clear to Rodriguez, personally.

So, wow. This is gonna be awkward.

Team management has been desperately looking for any way to void Rodriguez’s bloated contract, which keeps him in pinstripes through 2017, and will pay him upwards of $275 million.

Which is why it’s well known that the Yanks can’t void his contract based on a suspension for the Biogenesis steroid scandal alone.

And A-Rod has made it abundantly clear that he’s quite happy in New York, whether or not they’re happy with him is irrelevant. Expect this to get nastier.