Alex Rodriguez meets with new commissioner Rob Manfred

Controversial New York Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriguez met with new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred this week.

Alex Rodriguez wanted to clear the air.

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When last ARod met with MLB officials, it did not go particularly well. As a matter of fact, the drama that reportedly unfolded is more suited for your daily soap operas than it is any sort of professional setting.

That meeting included now-MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, and it reportedly included some shouting, some cursing, and Rodriguez storming out of the room as part of a tantrum.

With the apparent intention of getting back in MLB’s good graces before he officially becomes a professional baseball player again, Rodriguez met with new commissioner Rob Manfred this week. Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reports that Rodriguez met with Manfred this week. The strange thing? The meeting was apparently off the books, in secret, and without any lawyers or other forms of representation.

"Earlier this past week, the Yankees’ disgraced, returning slugger convened with commissioner-elect Rob Manfred at Major League Baseball’s midtown Manhattan headquarters, multiple sources confirmed. In an attempted signal of goodwill, A-Rod came unaccompanied by any Players Association representatives or personal attorneys."

What does it say about Rodriguez that it is meaningful for him to go somewhere without an attorney? Like it’s just standard for him to have legal representation with him at all times? Not only that, but it appears that he is aware of that fact and made it a point to go outside his comfort zone here and have a meeting by himself.

This won’t be the first stop for Rodriguez as he tries to re-establish some goodwill before the 2015 season starts. It’s not as if people would ever be able to forget about ARod, but the world did try to move on without him. It is clear where MLB stands, and the Yankees signed Chase Headley to be their third baseman.

To the surprise of nobody but ARod, life continued on without him. It would appear that he is starting to recognize the fact that everybody was good without him, and so he is trying a different approach. Rather than blatant arrogance and an inflated sense of self-importance, Rodriguez is moving on to secret meetings.

At some point soon, Alex Rodriguez will actually show the world what he can do on a baseball field once again. Given the need for right-handed power league-wide, the Yankees would probably love to see what he can do at the plate. They probably just wish they could pay him less for those efforts, and a few less reports about secret meetings would probably be nice too.

h/t Hardball Talk