KISSIMMEE, Fla. — When Alex Rodriguez arrived at spring training it was easy to believe he already had played his last big league game.
Now with eight days until Opening Day, the 39-year-old with two surgically repaired hips and coming off a one-year suspension has morphed into an asset for a lineup smothered in question marks.
"I am happy to being playing baseball. I am here to do exactly what my bosses want me to do,'' Rodriguez said after a three-inning stint at first base during a 7-0 Yankees victory Sunday over the Astros at Osceola County Stadium. "I can tell you that I am a lot more happy and fortunate this year than 12 months ago.''
Rodriguez handled three chances without an error and went 1-for-1 with a walk and scored from second on a single. In 16 games Rodriguez is batting .324 (12-for-37) with a team-leading three homers and a .432 on-base percentage. Yes, they are spring training numbers but Rodriguez has played 44 games in the past two seasons so those numbers were expected by many to be disastrous.
"It felt good. It was fun. After 20 years in the league to see the game through a totally different lense,'' Rodriguez said of playing first for the initial time at any level. He ranged toward second to glove a grounder that popped out of the leather, but he still got the out with a toss to pitcher Nathan Eovaldi covering first.
A year ago Rodriguez was about to miss the regular season thanks to a 162-game suspension for being involved in the Biogenesis sewer.
"I didn't know what to expect. The distraction stuff was there. I thought he's handled himself on the field and obviously in the clubhouse and in his interviews with you guys extremely well,'' general manager Brian Cashman said. "It's been about baseball, and he's done really well on that level, too.
Since Cashman said from the start of the process he didn't know what to expect, he admitted to not being surprised that not only hasn't Rodriguez been overmatched at the plate but has thrived.
"I can't say that it surprised me. I didn't know what to expect. It was more like, 'Let's just let whatever is going to be, be and happen. And then we can talk about what's happening, rather than waste your time wrapping your mind around what it is, or what's it going to be, or how's it going to look when you have no idea.'' Cashman said. "It's just a guessing game. But camp's gone really well for him.''
Manager Joe Girardi said experimenting with Rodriguez at first, something Rodriguez said he expects to repeat before the exhibition season closes, is to provide flexibility in the case of an emergency.
"I came up watching and admiring Keith Hernandez,'' Rodriguez said. "I tried to emulate one of my heroes.''
Girardi was encouraged with what he saw.
"I think he can do it. I might try to get him out there one more time,'' Girardi said. "We have a split-squad coming up [Thursday] so I have to decide what I am going to do there. He looked comfortable and around the bag it didn't look like it was foreign to him. The toughest things are the cuts and relays and we didn't get any of that. Fielding ground balls I am not worried about that.''
Having watched Jose Pirela suffer a concussion while playing center field, a position foreign to him, Girardi understood the risk of asking Rodriguez to play somewhere he never has.
"You tell the player to be smart and I think Alex is smart enough, but you have to have flexibility on your roster and this is what it gives us because if something was to happen to our other first basemen you have to have flexibility," Girardi said. "You would like to keep your other guys healthy but as we have proven, the last two years that hasn't been easy to do."
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