Yankees: Hip To Be Scared?

Mark it down right here: Alex Rodriguez's season is over.

Done. Fin. No amount of steroids can save him now.

The Yankees revealed today that Rodriguez, the trainwreck that keeps on wrecking, has a torn labrum in his right hip, but will not immediately have surgery, as the team hopes a more conservative approach to rehab can stave off a four-month absence.

Good luck with that!

The program, known in baseball circles as RETP, calls for rest, exercise, treatment and prayers.

Surely, the Yankees are aware of how rest worked for Mike Lowell's torn labrum last season. Lowell sustained his hip injury in early July, after putting on an RBI clinic for two months. But with his range of motion limited, Lowell hit a measly .215 in July, then .195 in the first two weeks of August.

But here's the problem for the Yankees with trying the rest route with A-Rod: Lowell got his rest, missing three-plus weeks in late August with an oblique injury, but it did nothing to alleviate the pain in Lowell's hip. He was a crippled shell in September, before finally being taken out back behind Fenway Park and shot during the Division Series in October.

So say A-Rod misses 10 weeks and tries to come back in mid-May. Say he plays a handful of rehab games in the minors and still has stiffness. Say the cyst re-appears because the tear hasn't entirely healed. Then what?

Surgery. Four months. Game over, man. (And let the suspension conspiracy theories begin!)

Maybe A-Rod missing the season wouldn't be the worst thing for the Yankees. At least it would prevent him from imploding in another October.