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A-Rod story far from over

Steroid questions will continue coming in slugger's direction

Phil Rogers | On Baseball

7:21 PM CST, February 21, 2009

Brian Cashman rarely wastes time with sugar coating. He was being remarkably honest when he said the black cloud following Alex Rodriguez won't be going away anytime soon.

"This thing is not dying," Cashman said after Rodriguez spoke for the second time about testing positive for steroids in 2003. "The shelf life of this is a lot longer, though Alex will probably stop talking to the degree he can as he moves forward, but every new environment we enter, it's going to be fair game."

Cashman was interviewed before the latest revelation about Rodriguez—according to the New York Daily News, he was shadowed throughout the 2007 season by both the cousin he says injected him with steroids and Angel Presinal, a trainer Major League Baseball banned for his link to steroids.

That wasn't an insignificant season for Rodriguez, either. He earned his third Most Valuable Player Award, leading the majors with 54 home runs and 156 RBIs, before opting out of the last three years left on the 10-year, $252 million deal he signed with the Texas Rangers.

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In his news conference Tuesday in Tampa, Rodriguez spoke with pride about '07, calling it one of his two best seasons. But now you wonder: Was he steroid free, as he claims, or had he just found a way to avoid testing positive?

As Cashman admitted, the questions aren't going to stop. You wonder how loud they will become before they start to die down, and whether manager Joe Girardi can keep them from derailing a team that went to camp with a $192 million payroll.

You also wonder how badly Cashman regrets not having taken the chance to end the relationship with Rodriguez when he had a chance, after the 2007 opt-out. There's no questioning Rodriguez's ability, but with him in the lineup the Yankees have lost four of five playoff series.

The Boston Red Sox had serious interest in Rodriguez two winters ago. They might have bitten if the Yankees had let Rodriguez walk. Cashman would have had the flexibility to pursue other options, possibly even Manny Ramirez this winter.

Cashman has lasted 12 seasons as the Yankees' general manager—a truly remarkable run.

At the start of that tenure, he had Gene Michael running interference for him with George Steinbrenner. But Steinbrenner and his sons assumed more of a hands-on posture as the early playoff exits began to happen. In recent years it has become unclear how much influence Cashman had in decisions like Joe Torre's one-year contract offer and Rodriguez's extension.

Baseball Prospectus assigns Rodriguez a 46.1 VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) rating. That's higher than either of the heralded newcomers, CC Sabathia (43.6) and Mark Teixeira (38.5).

Unlike Girardi, Cashman didn't try to paint the turnout of Yankee players at the Rodriguez news conference as proof of team unity. He admitted, in so many words, that teammates would be far more likely to scorn Rodriguez if the lineup wasn't built around him.

"There's genuine, sincere support for him, and I'm sure at the same time, from a professional side, it's, 'I need this guy,' " Cashman said. "I'm sure there were all aspects of that."

Between the problems Rodriguez has brought on the Yankees and the pressure that comes with huge free-agent contracts, there's reason to wonder how the Yankees' new Big Three will hold up when they get to New York in April.

The 96-victory season Baseball Prospectus projected is built largely around the high expectations for Rodriguez, Teixeira and Sabathia (along with second-year right-hander Joba Chamberlain).

Given the resources of Rodriguez's agent, Scott Boras, it makes no sense that Rodriguez would have somebody with Presinal's dubious record in his posse. Boras offers all his clients the use of a training institute that former White Sox strength coach Steve Odgers runs.

Boras declined to talk about Rodriguez. But his influence on his biggest client appears limited to contract negotiations—an area where Rodriguez can have no complaints. If anyone close to Rodriguez can escape this debacle unscathed, it will be Boras, who long has advised his clients to avoid steroids.

Arm-twisting: Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz had decided to skip the World Baseball Classic, which didn't make Panamanian President Martin Torrijos very happy. He called Ruiz, and suddenly Ruiz's trip to San Juan was back on.

According to Ruiz, Torrijos told him, "This is for your country."

Ruiz had gotten to know Torrijos after the World Series. He was invited to Panama's presidential palace and gave Torrijos the jersey he wore in the clinching game against Tampa Bay.

Feeling fine: Sabathia reports he feels great despite his heavy 2008 workload. He has pitched 513 innings over the last two seasons, the most in a two-year period since Curt Schilling worked 5711/3 in 2001-02.

Helping Milwaukee end a 25-year playoff drought, Sabathia worked on three days' rest in three consecutive September starts last season.

"A lot of people made a lot out of me pitching on three days' rest last year, but I felt unbelievable," said Sabathia, who signed a seven-year, $161 million contract with the Yankees. "Nobody forced me to do it. It was me wanting to take the ball. That's what I want to do here."

Sabathia's teammate A.J. Burnett said he has learned how to carry a workload by watching Roy Halladay. He said Halladay taught him that every pitch doesn't have to be thrown with maximum effort, which he believes will help him develop into a workhorse. Burnett has worked 200 innings only three years in his career and had setbacks after his two previous 200-inning seasons.

Horror movie: Jeff Francis, a 17-game winner when Colorado went to the 2007 World Series, had hoped to avoid surgery on his shoulder. But he couldn't stand the sight of himself on the mound in the first days of spring training.

"I was looking at the tape, and it was like, 'What am I doing? What am I trying to work through?' " Francis said about video of him during a workout. "My arm angle was wrong. I had no arm speed, no power. I was shocked at what I saw."

Francis will undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum, most likely sidelining him for the season. The Rockies feel good about Aaron Cook and Ubaldo Jimenez at the front of the rotation and have Jason Marquis, Greg Smith, Franklin Morales, Jason Hirsh, Greg Reynolds, Josh Fogg and Matt Belisle in the mix for the last three spots.

Loyola Academy graduate Christian Friedrich, a first-round pick of the Rockies last year, is expected to rise through the Colorado system quickly but won't arrive before 2010, if then. Right-hander Jhoulys Chacin could have an impact after the All-Star break this season.

The last word: "The only thing I know is he will be watched every time he faces us, and, hopefully, we will kill him. And then he'll just have to deal with the situation."— Carlos Beltran on Cole Hamels, who called the Mets "choke artists" in an off-season radio appearance.

progers@tribune.com