Alex Rodriguez is ready to return to a baseball field as soon as next week.
According to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, Rodriguez has been cleared for baseball activity, and will report to the Yankees’ complex in Tampa, Fla., to continue his rehab in extended spring training. Rodriguez had surgery on his left hip in January to repair a torn labrum.
Rodriguez’s initial prognosis was a six-month recovery time. He’s still on track to return to the Yankees some time after the All-Star break.
“They are now working out a baseball protocol for him,” Cashman said, according to ESPN. “Every conversation we have had with the physical therapist is that he is exactly where he needs to be. He is on time. He is working hard. I’ve never heard anything about he is ahead of schedule.”
Rodriguez is concurrently being investigated by Major League Baseball for connections to the now-closed Biogenesis clinic in Miami. Records obtained from the anti-aging clinic implicate it with the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs, which Rodriguez has previously admitted using from 2001 to 2003 while with the Texas Rangers.
