Cashman Revises A-Rod Prognosis to "Maybe Never"

This might or might not be news, but today Brian Cashman admitted that Alex Rodriguez could miss the entire season:

"Yeah," Cashman replied when asked if there was a chance that A-Rod could miss the entire season. "I think because (of) the serious nature of the surgery and the condition that he's trying to recover from, you know, there is that chance."

In a very short time, we have gone from "The surgeons say it wasn't as bad as initially thought," to "He's dead, Jim!" Still, nothing has really changed. He could come back in six months, he could come back a little later than that, or he could not come back at all. We'll see him when we see him.

The Yankees signed Kevin Youkilis to replace Rodriguez, so this statement by Cashman doesn't exactly change anything except perhaps that it serves to underscore (a) the urgency of finding a real designated hitter given that Rodriguez may never get around to filling that role, and (b) acknowledging that since Youkilis is extremely fragile himself, they might want to look around for a replacement-replacement third baseman, just in case.