Yankees captain Derek Jeter wants to reiterate it yet again: Alex Rodriguez has the support of his teammates.
Rodriguez became an offseason focal point again this winter with the release of former manager Joe Torre’s book, “The Yankee Years.”
Torre mentioned that some people in the Yankees clubhouse referred to Rodriguez as “A-Fraud.”
“Like I’ve said before, we all support Alex. He’s our teammate,” Jeter said Wednesday after working out at the Yankees’ minor league complex.
“It seems like that we keep talking about the same things over and over again. It’s not like this a new thing that’s come up. The only thing that you’d like to see, going into spring training is, you’d like to see everyone talking about the excitement of the season and getting ready for the season. That’s the unfortunate thing.”
Jeter said former Yankees bullpen catcher Mike Borzello, in a kidding manner with Rodriguez, sometimes called the slugger “A-Fraud.”
“He joked with him,” Jeter said. “It wasn’t like people on the team. I’ve never heard someone on the team say that. That never happened.”
Jeter said he has not read Torre’s book, but has followed recent media accounts.
“Knowing Mr. Torre, he’s never going to intentionally try to hurt somebody,” Jeter said. “He’s like a second father to me. Everyone knows how close we are. He’s not going to intentionally go out and do harm to somebody. That’s not the kind of person he is.”
Derek Jeter spoke to SI.com Tuesday and fully backed Rodriguez.
“We’ve been down this road before. Alex is a teammate. I support him. Our whole team is behind him. We all support him,” Jeter told writer Jimmy Trania.
“To be quite honest with you, it’s old hearing the same questions. It’s something that’s been addressed before in the past. Everyone’s moved beyond it. And it doesn’t really need to be addressed again.”
Torre continued his tour media today defending his words and those of co-author Tom Verducci in “The Yankee Years.”
The book includes the idea that Rodriguez has a “Single White Female”-like obsession with Jeter. Torre told CNN’s Larry King last Friday that the two players did not have an issue in the clubhouse.
Baseball-wise, a busy offseason by the Yankees, including the signing of free agents C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira, has Jeter upbeat.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m probably as excited about this season as any season in a long time,” Jeter said. “We made some great additions. They said they wanted to improve our pitching staff and we got arguably two of the best in the game. We added Tex. They always talk about how great of a hitter he is. He’s an all-around player.
“It boils down to everybody staying healthy, especially in our division with so many good teams. I’m pretty excited about this year.”