Alex Rodriguez's relationship with the New York Yankees is turning into a highly publicized bad breakup.
The New York Times is reporting that Rodriguez's new lawyer has accused the Yankees of sabotaging A-Rod's career and conspiring with Major League Baseball to get him out of the sport.
Joseph Tacopina, Rodriguez's new counsel, told the times that baseball investigators were relying on the word of the owner of an anti-aging clinic in South Florida who lacks credibility to pin doping charges on Rodriguez.
The most damning of accusations was Tacopina's assertion that during the 2012 playoffs, the Yankees hid from Rodriguez that a magnetic resonance imaging test had revealed that he had a torn labrum - essentially a hole in his hip - and continued to play him despite his struggles at the plate.
"They rolled him out there like an invalid and made him look like he was finished as a ballplayer," Tacopina told the Times.
Tacopina added that Rodriguez learned the extent of his injuries in the offseason and that the Yankees sent him to Dr. Bryan T. Kelly, a prominent surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.
Tacopina said Kelly later told Rodriguez that before the surgery, Yankees president Randy Levine told Kelly, "I don't ever want to see him on the field again."
"It sent chills down Alex's spine," Tacopina said.
Rodriguez asked Kelly if Levine's comment was a joke, Tacopina said, and was told that "it wasn't a joke."
Through a lawyer, Kelly would not confirm he made those comments.
According to the New York Daily News, Levine quickly denied the charges, saying: "It never happened. Each and every conversation we had with Dr. Kelly and the other doctors in which multiple people took part in, there were notes taken and transcripts made, which we will be delighted to release, but we would have to have his permission.
"Alex had the finest medical treatment he could get," Levine added, "all of which were the result of his choices -- of doctors and the procedures. The Yankees are extremely confident that he had the highest standard of care. If he consents, we have no problem releasing all of his records, so that everyone involved can make their own conclusions."
According to the Times, Tacopina declined to answer questions about whether Rodriguez had used banned substances, saying he was trying to follow baseball's process and did not want to violate a "confidentiality clause."
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