Cashman's Yankees Must Lie in the Bed They Made with A-Rod's Contract

That Alex Rodriguez has 660 career home runs, and that some of those came while he was under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs, are the undisputed facts.

Here is the disputed one: The New York Yankees owe A-Rod a tarnished $6 million bonus for reaching that milestone Friday, in a 3-2 away win against the Red Sox, and tying Willie Mays on the career total list.

The Major League Baseball Players Association wants Rodriguez to have the money because, it says, his contract is clear on the fact that the bonus is paid if and when he reaches Mays’ total, Babe Ruth’s (714), Hank Aaron’s (755) and Barry Bonds’ (762) and if he hits career homer No. 763, which would break Bonds’ all-time record. The Yankees say it is up to them if they want to pay Rodriguez, and that his contract clearly states that.

ESPN's Dan Szymborski highlighted the irony of the situation:

"

I mean, the Yankees intentionally picked up $14 million of the Vernon Wells contract - this organization isn't known for valuing $6 million.

— Dan Szymborski (@DSzymborski) May 3, 2015"

The problem, the Yankees say, is that they were unable to market the milestone because of Rodriguez’s Biogenesis scandal, which resulted in a 162-game suspension that cost him the 2014 season. Because the Yankees were not able to make any money off of No. 660, neither will Rodriguez.

That is now their official stance after general manager Brian Cashman put it on the record Saturday.

“We have the right but not the obligation to do something, and that's it," Cashman told reporters. “We're going to follow the contract as we follow all contracts, so there is no dispute, from our perspective.”

The problem with that is if the language in Rodriguez’s contract states the Yankees have to pay just as long as he hits the milestone, regardless of the marketing beforehand, the Yankees must pay. They don’t have to like Rodriguez, and they might not have gotten quite what they expected out of his catching Mays, but that should not matter.

A deal is a deal. And if that is the deal, Cashman and the organization have to sleep in the bed they made, no matter how messy or uncomfortable it might be.

For now, the Yankees are not going to pay Rodriguez, and, according to Cashman, they do not have to. He contradicted general belief that the team had to pay out the bonus just as long as Rodriguez reached the number. That would be regardless of the tarnish the player had slathered on himself.

As the GM put it, the Yankees had the option to promote Rodriguez’s run to 660. If they chose to, A-Rod would get the money. If they elected to ignore it, as they most certainly did leading up to Friday’s home run, then the team owed absolutely nothing.

“We're going to honor our responsibilities of the contract,” Cashman continued. “[But] how it's been reported...and what the contract actually says are two different things. It's not ‘you do this, you get that.’ It's completely different. It's not all of a sudden, we're choosing not to do something. If we choose to pursue something we'll choose to pursue it. If we choose not to, it's our right not to. In both cases, we're honoring the contract.” 

Since the public, or media, has no access to those details of the contract, Cashman’s word is all everyone has to go on. The players union does not agree with Cashman, however, and action seems inevitable if the Yankees stand their ground.

“The Union is prepared to intervene on Alex's behalf,” MLBPA spokesman Greg Bouris told ESPN.com via text. 

As they should, until the Yankees can undoubtedly prove the contract’s language is as Cashman claims. Just because the team no longer wants Rodriguez around—ironically, he’s become an indispensable part of the lineup this season—does not mean they can renege on their deal with him.

Jim Rogash/Getty Images

It is not the Yankees’ fault they signed Rodriguez to the ridiculous 10-year, $275 million deal and then, shortly after, had his first PED scandal dumped on their heads. Still, the contract is valid.

That means it has to pay what it owes. And according to what we all believed to be common baseball knowledge, it owes Rodriguez for his latest benchmark home run whether it wants to or not.

Cashman also told reporters, “The great thing about contracts is if there's any disputes there's mechanisms for anybody who has a misunderstanding or a misinterpretation. There's procedures in place to have people determine if there is some misunderstanding.” That is 100 percent accurate, and now the Yankees must go through the process of proving there was some kind of misinterpretation.

If they cannot, pay up and shut up.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.