Alex Rodriguez, the New York Yankees’ injured third-baseman, said he looks forward to left hip surgery and a healthy return to the lineup.
“I’m not concerned,” Rodriguez told The Associated Press. “I’m actually, in many ways, relieved that there’s something tangible that we can go fix.”
Rodriguez had surgery on his right hip in 2009, missed about the first month of the season and still finished with 30 home runs and 100 RBIs — plus helped the Yankees win the World Series.
This surgery, however, is not the same as the other one. It reportedly will be more complex, since it’ll repair not only a torn labrum but also a bone impingement and a cyst. The surgery is next month because it was determined he needed some time to strengthen the hip first.
“I am fully committed to a very hard road back,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve done it before in ’09 and it was a great result, both on a personal level and on a team level, more importantly. I take it as a great challenge and I’m excited for the challenge.”
A 14-time All-Star and baseball’s priciest player at $275 million, Rodriguez plans to further discuss the hip situation at a news conference later Saturday afternoon.
He batted .120 (3 for 25) with no RBIs in last season’s playoffs, including 0 for 18 with 12 strikeouts against right-handed pitchers. He originally thought he was having issues with the right hip again — he wasn’t — and it wasn’t until November that the issues within the left hip were detected.
Rodriguez finished this past regular season batting .272 with 18 home runs and 57 RBIs. He now has 647 career homers, fifth-most in baseball history and 13 shy of the No. 4 player on that list, Willie Mays.
