Rodriguez, Yankees to meet before spring training

Agencies/New YorkNew York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Friday that the team is ‘more than happy’ to meet with Alex Rodriguez. Having served a one-season suspension for violations of baseball’s drug agreement and labour contract, Rodriguez is to start workouts at the team’s spring-training complex Feb. 26. His relationship with some team officials was strained in 2013 as he tried to avoid a suspension. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said the proposed meeting, which he has approved, was discussed Thursday when he and assistant general manager Jean Afterman spoke with Jim Sharp, a lawyer for former Mariner Rodriguez. The talks were first reported by The Boston Globe.“Alex considers everything with the Yankees to be family business, and family business stays within the family,” his spokesman, Ron Berkowitz, said in an e-mail.Rodriguez first sounded out the Yankees about a possible meeting earlier in the offseason, but New York held off at that point.Rodriguez sued Yankees team physician Dr Christopher Ahmad and New York-Presbyterian Hospital in October 2013, accusing them of mishandling his medical care during the 2012 AL playoffs, then withdrew the case in June.A-Rod, 39, has not played a full season since 2007 because of leg injuries, operations on both hips and the suspension.He was banned for 211 games in August 2013 by then-commissioner Bud Selig, and the penalty was cut to the 2014 season by an arbitrator. After suing in federal court in an attempt to overturn the discipline, Rodriguez dropped that action and accepted the penalty.New York plans on shifting the three-time AL most valuable player from third base to designated hitter. He is fifth on the career list with 654 homers.The Yankees owe Rodriguez $61 million in the final three seasons of his 10-year contract.Meanwhile New baseball commissioner Rob Manfred cautioned Hall of Fame voters not to “surmise” that some players used performance-enhancing drugs during their careers. Manfred told ESPN.com that there should be credible evidence against a player to make a voter withhold support for a candidate.