Alex Rodriguez might not be activated until Tuesday
Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Texas Rangers in the top of the sixth inning at Globe Life Park in Arlington on July 27, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. Credit: Getty Images / Tom Pennington
OAKLAND, Calif. — Alex Rodriguez ran again Friday with no pain, a positive sign.
But the 40-year-old DH, on the disabled list since May 4 with a right hamstring strain, still hasn’t been able to cut loose with his legs, and Joe Girardi indicated the Yankees might wait until Tuesday before activating him.
“We’ll see,” Girardi said of activating A-Rod sometime this weekend. “It becomes kind of interesting because you have a day off on Monday. So it’s something we’ll talk about.”
The Yankees end a stretch of 20 games in a row Sunday and are off Monday before starting a three-game series against Toronto on Tuesday night.
Girardi called Friday “a good day” and said Rodriguez made “a lot” of progress.
“He did the arcs, he was much quicker on those, he ran the bases,” Girardi said. “So tomorrow we just kind of wait to see how he feels and then we’ll decide what we’ll have.”
In the week leading up to this four-game series, Thursday had always been targeted as a likely return date for A-Rod. His hamstring hasn’t cooperated, though, at least not to the point that he has felt comfortable enough, in his words, to “just let it go.”
“We could do it [Saturday],’’ Girardi said. “But there’s the old theory that if a guy feels good, you wait an extra day just to make sure. Then you have to decide, we’re off Monday, so does it make sense to give him a couple extra days just to make sure? Let’s just see how he comes out [Saturday].’’
Let’s chat
While Girardi has refrained from blasting his team publicly for the baserunning gaffes it has committed during this trip — including three Thursday night — that doesn’t mean there haven’t been internal discussions. “Everything is addressed,” he said. “There is nothing that goes unnoticed here.”
Roster doings
Lefthanded reliever James Pazos was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to open a spot for CC Sabathia, Friday night’s starter, to be activated from the DL.
