Alex Rodriguez was right. We haven’t heard the last of him.
Joe Girardi said Rodriguez was the obvious choice to fill in at DH when Carlos Beltran (hamstring) and Mark Teixeira (knee) sat out Wednesday against Texas right-hander Nick Martinez.
“He’s had a lot of at-bats against righties,” the manager said of Rodriguez before the 9-7 win. “And I didn’t say necessarily he wasn’t going to DH against certain [righties]. It was just [that] we were going with [Aaron] Hicks and we put Beltran in the DH spot.”
Rodriguez went 0-for-5, including a ninth-inning line drive hit right to second baseman Rougned Odor. He was booed after an eighth-inning groundout.
“I’m excited about my last at-bat,” Rodriguez said. “It was a good opportunity there. The results [were] not so good. Good swing, [though].”
It was clear from the comments of both Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman on Monday that Rodriguez’s woes against righties were what led the team to sit him versus two righty starters in a row.
Cashman repeated Rodriguez’s OPS against righties (a dismal .584 heading into Wednesday) like a mantra and nothing has changed since then — other than the health of Beltran and Teixeira.
Girardi, though, was left with little choice but to go with Rodriguez, who he hit third in the lineup in hopes he would find a way to start driving the ball again.
“That’s obviously why we continue to play him, because we know he’s capable of doing that,” Girardi said.
The Yankees signed their first-round pick, outfielder Blake Rutherford, for $3.2 million, according to a source. The deal was $800,000 above slot for the No. 18 overall pick. Rutherford had signed with UCLA and some believed he would attend college instead of agreeing to a deal.
Girardi downplayed the chance of Aaron Judge being recalled, despite the team’s injuries, citing a need to keep a 12-man pitching staff and a reluctance to recall him from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre short-term.
“The minor league people are trying to finish him off, so when and if he gets here, he’s here to stay,” the manager said. “He’s gotten really hot. We’re seeing improvement, which I think is really positive. We’re seeing things we didn’t see last year.”
Judge was among four RailRiders elected to the Triple-A All-Star team, along with C Gary Sanchez, OF Ben Gamel and RHP Chad Green.
Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera — among others — are scheduled to take part in an on-field reunion of the 1996 World Championship team on August 13. Rivera will be honored the following day with his Monument Park plaque dedication. … With Teixeira out, Rob Refsnyder got the start at first and dropped Masahiro Tanaka’s throw on a slow roller in the first and misplayed a Prince Fielder grounder into an RBI single in the third.