Yankees welcome back Alex Rodriguez but also speak frankly about him

Alex Rodriguez was openly welcomed back into the clubhouse from which he's been missing all season.

The third baseman -- suspended, pending appeal, for 211 games yesterday by Major League Baseball -- was driven by a friend to U.S. Cellular Field and entered the clubhouse at 3:15 p.m. He talked and smiled easily with teammates before making his 2013 debut, playing with many of those teammates for the first time.

But even while welcoming Rodriguez back, many of those who spoke before the game drove home a general point regarding all of the suspensions handed down yesterday:

Those caught cheating should pay a stiff penalty.

"That's what we're trying to do; we're trying to get it out of there," Lyle Overbay said of PEDs. "It's not foolproof. Obviously, there's going to be some guys out there that are going to get away with it, but it's something we can move forward with. It's never going to be 100 percent, but at least we're getting closer to the other side."

Overbay called it "frustrating" that Rodriguez allegedly used PEDs. "He's so good, he doesn't need to do that kind of stuff," Overbay said. "That's what's frustrating for me."

Alfonso Soriano, part of the trade in which the Yankees acquired Rodriguez in 2004, expressed a similar sentiment.

"Compete clean and see what happens," Soriano said. "A lot of guys, they have too much talent. They don't have to try to do [PEDs]. God gave you the talent. Don't try to be a superhero or something like that. Just play with the talent God gave to you and see what happens."

Soriano was taken aback not by the number of players suspended but that it had to happen at all.

"Not surprised at the names, but surprised people keep trying, that's what's surprising," he said. "If you try to do something wrong, sooner or later they're going to get you."

Vernon Wells echoed much of what was said in the clubhouse in San Diego when news broke that Rodriguez was likely to join the team yesterday. "If Alex is healthy, which he seems to be, he's going to help this team a lot," Wells said.

Asked if it was awkward welcoming a player back into the clubhouse who was making his season debut the same day he was given a 211-game suspension, Wells smiled.

"There's a lot of strange things going on in this game right now, and this just adds to it," he said. "But he's here in this uniform now and that's all that matters . . . He's here, he's going to help this team hopefully win some games and hopefully get back into the thick of this race."

Wells and Overbay did seem to differ on how much of a deterrent the current penalties are.

Overbay said the first-offense penalty of 50 games isn't "stiff enough" and added that it will be a "big issue" this offseason within the union.

Said Wells: "When you talk about 50 games and some of the dollars associated, that's pretty big. If that doesn't stop you, I don't know what will. A lot of guys have tried to go about their business the right way, and unfortunately, we have to talk about a certain few that haven't."