Yankees Exercise Caution, Place Alex Rodriguez on 15-Day DL

by Jill Seward on Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 6:20PM

The Yankees may be taking notes from the Red Sox as they adopt the cautious route in moving third baseman Alex Rodriguez to the 15-day DL Saturday afternoon.

After a few days of rest and trying to play through a strain in his calf muscle, the Yankees organization has decided to give Rodriguez an extended break on the DL to fully repair the injury.

"We are going to play it extremely safe," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after Saturday's win over the Seattle Mariners, as reported by ESPN.com.

The announcement came just hours after Girardi had told reporters that the disabled list was not an option for A-Rod. However, Yankees GM Brian Cashman and Girardi came to a mutual agreement in the postgame that sitting Rodriguez would be best to prevent further injury. The calf strain had already sidelined the third baseman through four games this week.

Girardi told reporters he hadn't discussed the organization's decision with Rodriguez, and A-Rod did not meet with the media on Saturday. He appeared in Friday's 6-0 loss to the Mariners for one at-bat, where he grounded out to third, and then stayed on the sidelines for the remainder of the game.

Had Rodriguez remained on the bench during Friday's matchup, the Yankees could have retroactively set his DL stint to Monday, Aug. 16, when he left the game against Detroit in the fourth inning with calf soreness. Now, however, A-Rod won't be able to return until the first week in September. That is, if all goes well with his recovery process.

The Yankees have brought up righty starter Ivan Nova from Triple-A Scranton to replace Rodriguez's gap in the lineup. Nova will get his first start on Monday against Toronto. Eduardo Nunez got the start at third base on Saturday in place of A-Rod, and went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.