ROOKIES CRUSH
Owner: A-Rod offer stands
HOUSTON — Alex Rodriguez has an open invitation to return to the Yankees’ family, Hal Steinbrenner said Wednesday — even if the epically controversial slugger decides to play elsewhere in 2017.
Asked whether A-Rod would have a job as Yankees adviser and instructor waiting for him if he played for another team in 2017, Steinbrenner said, “Of course. I’ve told him, we’ll talk. But that really never came up. … It’s intended to be a really flexible situation.”
In fact, Steinbrenner said he intended to reach out to Rodriguez on Friday to gauge his interest in traveling from his Miami home across Florida this month in order to work with the Yankees’ two top shortstop prospects at Class-A Tampa: Jorge Mateo and Gleyber Torres.
“I can’t think of anybody better to bring in for a week, or two weeks,” Steinbrenner said of ARod. “Next year, the plan would be he’s all over the place, like [Hideki] Matsui.”
Next year remains slightly in doubt until A-Rod — who has announced through his spokesman Ron Berkowitz that he will take the rest of the season off — announces his retirement, which he refused to do last week as he went along with the Yankees’ plan to release him following one farewell week.
Steinbrenner clearly views Rodriguez as an asset moving forward, and not just because the Yankees owe him another $21 million next year or because the instructor/adviser agreement goes through only 2017.
“Some of the great leaders we’ve had, on-the-field leaders, haven’t necessarily been good at taking a kid under their wing and really working with him,” Steinbrenner said. “But I saw it with Didi [Gregorius] and [A-Rod] last year. And others have told me about [Robinson] Cano.”
Steinbrenner confirmed that he and Rodriguez have an understanding, as A-Rod said last week, that the free agent wouldn’t go anywhere before clearing it with the Yankees’ managing general partner.