Maddon, A-Rod bury Darvish spat

Cubs manager Joe Maddon made an emphatic point during an afternoon meeting with the ESPN crew calling Sunday night’s Nationals-Cubs game: He will defend his players.

“My job, I believe, is to protect my brood,” Maddon said. “Quite frankly, it’s no different than being a parent.”

After ESPN analyst Alex Rodriguez went after Yu Darvish during a Sunday night telecast two weeks ago, Maddon slammed the three-time American League MVP on WSCR-AM 670, calling Rodriguez’s comments “plastic, probably rehearsed … and contrived.”

The two made peace Sunday.

“Alex and I had a really nice discussion,” Maddon said. “I felt good about it. Hopefully he felt the same. We talked openly about it. Under those circumstances for me, you speak in a candid manner and then you move on.

I really believe through that conversation that we have a chance to be pretty good friends.”

Rodriguez took two questions in the dining room near the ESPN broadcast booth, saying: “We had a brief, very positive conversation. What’s great about this is we all have the same interests — to grow the game, to highlight stories as objectively as we can. You guys are in the business, so you know that better than anyone. I thought it was a very positive conversation.”

Rodriguez had suggested on air that Darvish’s teammates felt the injured pitcher was being coddled.

“When you have a guy that signed an enormous contract and is sitting down and you walk in the training room and he’s got two trainers working on him, you should be in Arizona somewhere getting treated,” Rodriguez said July 29.

Asked Sunday if he regretted his remarks, Rodriguez replied: “No, my job is to say it fairly and objectively. Over 25 years in the game, I call it as I see it . ... We don’t always have to agree on everything, but I do have a lot of respect for Joe and obviously the Cubs organization. … As a matter of fact … Joe and I plan to have drinks together. So that’s in the books.”

Maddon said the issue is now in the past: “Listen, I’m not here to battle with anybody. I want to believe that it will be a nice first step to building a great relationship with Alex.”