The LoHud Yankees Blog

Alex Rodriguez will undergo surgery this morning on his right hip and the hope is that he will be back in April.

A.J. Burnett looked good in his spring debut. This notebook also has updates on Hideki Matsui, Mariano Rivera, Phil Hughes and Cody Ransom.

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Today is the first official work out for the minor leaguers. Their training camp is across the street from Steinbrenner Field on Himes Avenue.

The Yankees have a clubhouse and set of offices over there along with four fields, batting cages and a bullpen. The minor leaguers will play games from March 21-April 5 then head off to their respective teams.

The Yankees have four full-season minor league teams. Injured players and those not quite ready will stay in what is called extended spring training. Basically, they remain at Himes, work out and play scrimmage games. Two short-season minor league teams start their season in June.

It may take a few days, but soon enough the Yankees will start to demote players from the major league camp to the minor league camp. By Wednesday, when the starting pitchers are ready to go three or four innings each, there simply won’t be enough innings to go around.

Plus the Yankees will lose some coaches. Guys like AAA manager Dave Miley and AAA pitching coach Scott Alred have been at Steinbrenner Field helping out. They’ll be across the street today.

If you want to read a great piece of writing, check out this column Ian O’Connor of The Record did on Cody Ransom.

This is a story I suspect not many of his teammates know and it’s chilling.

UPDATE, 11:19 p.m.: Meanwhile, check out these You Tube videos of Cody: The man really can jump.

Roger Kahlon is Hideki Matsui’s translator. He’s a terrific guy who has a great relationship with Joe Girardi, the players and the beat writers.

With Matsui recovering from knee surgery and not playing until this past week, we had been kidding Roger about not having much to do. But that has changed in the last few days as we’ve been interviewing Matsui on a fairly regular basis.

When today’s session broke up, I asked Roger if he needed a rest from all the translation he has been doing.

“That’s right, you better give him a break,” Matsui said in perfect English as everybody laughed.

Meanwhile, Matsui went from first to third today when a low liner off the bat of Cody Ransom to right skipped past Marcus Thames. He seems to be getting his legs under him along with getting his eye back at the plate.

Matsui is probably done as an outfielder, at least on any regular basis. But if his knees allow it, he will be a presence in the middle of the lineup.

Girardi said this afternoon that he is inclined to leave Mark Teixeira hitting third even when A-Rod is out. That could mean Matsui bats cleanup.

One of the scouts had A.J. Burnett throwing 98 today on his gun. John Harper of the Daily News mentioned that to him.

“Really?” Burnett said with a grin. “I didn’t mean to.”

Meanwhile, here is what Phil Hughes has done this spring:

7.2 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts. He threw three hitless innings today, walking two and fanning four.

Here’s the list of internal candidates to play third base in the absence of Alex Rodriguez:

1. Cody Ransom

Robinson Cano isn’t moving over there. Neither is Mark Teixeira or Xavier Nady. There is no mystery guest in camp. Joe Girardi even shot down the idea of Angel Berroa today.

For 2-4 weeks, the Yankees are prepared to let Ransom play. “I believe that that he can handle it, I do,” Girardi said. “Time will tell. He’s going to get a lot of opportunities.”

Brian Cashman has not yet sat down with his staff and talked about external options. But you can be sure that Billy Eppler and his people have made a list.

“If something makes sense that you run into, I think we’ll gravitate to it,” Cashman said. “But it’s hard to run into things that make sense.”

Ransom has been remarkably calm the last few days.

“Nobody can replace Alex Rodriguez,” he said. “I can only do what I can do. I’m ready to play and if I’m out there, I’ll give them everything I can give them.”

YANKEES
Cabrera CF
Damon LF
Swisher 1B
Matsui DH
Nady RF
Ransom 3B
Molina C
Berroa SS
Bernier 2B

Pitching today: A.J. Burnett followed by Phil Hughes, Brian Bruney, Andrew Brackman and Mark Melancon.

TIGERS
Everett SS
Polanco 2B
Sheffield DH
Thames LF
Larish 1B
Clevlen CF
Laird C
Inge 3B
Gomez RF

Pitching today: Nate Robertson, Dontrelle Willis, Fernando Rodney.

Notes: This is the spring-training debut for Burnett. He will likely throw two innings followed by three from Hughes. … Hideki Matsui will get a test today as he plays in back-to-back games. … Back with more later on.

BREAKING NEWS, 9:02 a.m.: Announcement coming at 9:30 on A-Rod. Dr. Philppon will be on a conference call. Sounds like a decision has been made.

UPDATE, 9:36 a.m.: Alex Rodriguez will have less invasive surgery to repair the labrum, try to play and then have a full repair after the season.

UPDATE, 9:40 a.m.: A-Rod has an impingement, meaning bone is striking bone. The initial surgery will fix the labrum. The second will repair the bone deformity.

The goal, Dr. Philippon, will be a rapid rehab. “It’s a very good option,” he said.

He said the rehab will take 6-9 weeks.

UPDATE, 9:47 p.m.: Surgery will be Monday. Dr. Philippon said he’s 85-90 percent certain A-Rod won’t have a setback this season.

A-Rod will stay in Vail for several weeks.

Again, it’ll be 6-9 weeks before he plays in a MLB game. So late April possibly.

UPDATE, 9:58 a.m.: Dr. Philippon said it’s 100 percent that A-Rod will need a second surgery.

The larger surgery would have kept him out 3-4 months. They’ll gave to reshape the femoral head of the bone.

UPDATE, 10:02 a.m.: Cashman said he thinks they made the right call based on the information.

UPDATE, 11:21 a.m.: Here we are in Lakeland, home of the Tiger and one of my favorite spring training sites, Joker Marchant Stadium.

Here is where Mark Feinsand and I parked:

(Just kidding, Brian).

As for A-Rod, I believe the Yankees are doing the right thing. Dr. Philippon is considered one of the top people in his field. If he says Alex can get through the season, you have to believe him.

The question now becomes when A-Rod will be ready to play. Opening Day is four weeks away. So in theory, Alex could be ready two weeks into the season. That’s certainly better than the All-Star break.

UPDATE, 11:56 a.m.: Even if A-Rod comes back in two weeks, I think the Yankees would be wise to obtain an infielder now. They could use a solid third baseman and beyond that, they will obviously need a reliable backup for the whole season. Clearly Alex will need extra time off, games as the DH, etc.

It would be crazy to get somebody expensive like Scott Rolen. But maybe somebody like Mark Grudzielanek? Ray Durham? I would expect Cashman to make some sort of move.

UPDATE, 1:22 p.m.: A.J. Burnett got three easy outs in the first inning. P-9, F-8, 4-3. 11 pitches, 8 strikes. 0-0 after one inning.

UPDATE, 1:41 p.m.: Here is the conference call today with Brian Cashman and Dr. Philippon. Warning: This is 30 minutes and it’s thick with medical stuff. I figure Will Carroll, if nobody else, will be interested.

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UPDATE, 2:00 p.m.: A.J. Burnett’s line: 2 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts. He was very efficient, getting the hitters to put the ball in play. Hughes in now. 5-0 Yankees.

UPDATE, 3:13 p.m.: Just spoke to Brian Cashman, Mr. Pessimism said he expects A-Rod back in mid-May. Cashman always goes worst-case scenario.

Cashman said that as the Yankees researched this, they found a number of athletes (including baseball players) who had similar surgery and came back to play at a high level.

Here’s Cashman talking about the decision:

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Jesus Montero is determined to be a catcher despite size that could dictate otherwise. Tony Pena and Joe Girardi think he will succeed.

As Alex Rodriguez tries to decide what his next step is, the Yankees could be looking at Mark Teahen. This notebook also has updates on Chien-Ming Wang, Jason Johnson, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada.

A few notes for you …

· Hideki Matsui (who hit the ball hard twice today) till travel to Lakeland tomorrow. It’ll be his first back to back.

· No update on Alex Rodriguez to this point.

· Jorge Posada threw today before the game and came through well. He could throw to the bases on Monday and catch a game next weekend.

· Damaso Marte threw a scoreless inning in the WBC for the Dominicans. Robbie Cano was 1 for 5. Derek Jeter added to his legacy as a great American by going 2 for 3 for the U.S. He’s out of the game now.

· The home run Chien-Ming Wang allowed today came on a change-up that floated. But he used a changeup (this one sank) to strike out Josh Anderson in the third inning. Wang wasn’t thrilled with his location. I told him that he threw 27 of 33 pitches for strikes. “I can do better,” he said.

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Also wanted to pass these along …

· A very Happy Birthday to Joan from Phillipsburg, N.J. She is a loyal reader and we thank her for that.

· Ran into the infamous Marisol of the Yankee Hottie blog. She is here for a few days and has some coverage and photos on her blog. Marisol and her friend Kat were tearing up Tampa last night.

· My pals at Baseball Analysts had me help them out with an AL East preview.

· Meanwhile, according to CNBC’s Darren Rovell, you can’t purchase an “A-Fraud” jersey from MLB.com. Now what am I going to get for my birthday?

YANKEES
Damon LF
Cabrera CF
Teixeira 1B
Matsui DH
Nady RF
Ransom SS
Leone 3B
Pena 2B
Pilittere C

Pitching today: Chien-Ming Wang followed by Tomko, Coke, Dunn, De La Rosa.

BRAVES
Anderson CF
Johnson 2B
Kotchman 1B
Norton DH
Francoeur RF
Escobar SS
Diaz LF
Infante 3B
Ross C

Pitching today: Jair Jurrjens followed by Buddy Carlyle, Kris Medlen, Luis Valdez and Blaine Boyer

Notes: The game is on YES and WCBS. It’s a mystery to me why YES and WCBS do four of the same games in Florida. Why not spread it out so people in New York have access to more games? In the words of former Newsday beat writer Jim Baumbach, “What about the fans?” … Anyway, Wang will throw 35-40 pitches today as this will be his second start. … A.J. Burnett makes his spring debut tomorrow in Lakeland against the Tigers.

Back with more later on. There may not be too much A-Rod news today as all involved seem to be ruminating on what to do. My belief is that he will end up getting the surgery. The signs seem to be pointing that way.

UPDATE, 11:06 a.m.: Nick Swisher had two diamond earrings put in. “First time, I just decided to do it,” he said. He’s a little worried what his father will do once he sees them. Steve Swisher played in the big leagues from 1974-82. “He’s old school, he’s not going to like it.”

Meanwhile, CC Sabathia continues to be a presence in the clubhouse. He pulled up a chair next to A.. Burnett this morning and soon had Brian Bruney and Phil Hughes in the conversation. I heard from people in Cleveland and Milwaukee how seriously Sabathia took being a good teammate and there has been ample evidence of that this spring.

Hideki Matsui is the DH today and is scheduled to make the trip to Lakeland tomorrow. That would be his first back-to-back.

I spoke to Jesus Montero for a while this morning. He’s a very impressive young man. He kept calling me “sir” until I made him stop. He had a double in last night’s game and as Kevin Long said, the ball sounds differently off his bat.

His “groin strain” the other day proved to be nothing at all and he feels fine. He and Austin Romine are good friends. There’s no rivalry, Montero said, just competition.

UPDATE, 1:44 p.m.: Wang has thrown 21 of 25 pitches for strikes in the first two innings. He could go out for another batter or two. Outside of the home run, he has pitched well.

UPDATE, 1:52 p.m.: Mark Teixeira ended the top of the third with a terrific play at first base, backhanded a ball off the bat of Casey Kotchman and flipping it to CMW.

Wang’s final line: 3 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts. 33 pitches, 27 strikes.

Alex Rodriguez is contemplating surgery on his right hip. But Brian Cashman said no decision has been reached yet.

CC Sabathia’s first spring appearance was a good one. This notebook also has an update on the MLBPA meeting and other tidbits.

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The Yankees have a late report before today’s game against the Braves. Back later (much later) with the lineups.