BASEBALL ROUNDUP News and notes

Yankees: If Alex Rodriguez opts out of his contract after this season, the Yankees insist they won’t try to re-sign him. “How can we? We lose all our money from Texas,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. Rodriguez has 31⁄2 seasons remaining on his record $252 million, 10-year deal, but he can opt out of the contract this fall and become a free agent — a decision the slugger would have to make within 10 days of the end of the World Series. Rodriguez is owed $24 million in each of the next three seasons by the Yankees, with Texas offsetting about $21.3 million of that. He is guaranteed an additional $3 million annually by the Rangers, the original deferred money in his contract that was converted to an assignment bonus at the time of his trade to the Yankees. Cashman said the club has not spoken to A-Rod or his agent, Scott Boras, about a potential contract extension. “We’d like to have him stay,” Cashman said. “We’ll have those discussions at the end of the year.”

Nationals: The Nationals have been waiting all year for first baseman Nick Johnson’s broken right leg to heal. Now they’ll have to wait until next year. General manager Jim Bowden said Johnson will have another surgery on the leg and will not play in 2007. “We just couldn’t quite get over the hump with his hip,” Bowden said. “He couldn’t quite get to the ground ball to his left. His hitting has come along great. There was no question in our mind that he made tremendous progress offensively. But it just wasn’t allowing him to be Nick Johnson. You’ve got to have the hip in baseball.” Johnson broke his right femur in a collision with right fielder Austin Kearns during a game against the New York Mets on Sept. 23, 2006. At the time — and for several weeks afterward — the Nationals were confident Johnson would recover in time for this year’s spring training. But Johnson wasn’t ready in February, and the date for his return was pushed back several times. He has received two cortisone shot this year dull the pain in the hip.

Braves: Julio Franco arrived Thursday at the latest stop on his baseball odyssey — the Class A Rome (Ga.) Braves. With a smile on his face, he said he planned to “enjoy this to the max.” A quarter century after his first game in the major leagues, the 48-year-old Franco was in Rome to play first base in a South Atlantic League game with the Greenville Drive. “My goal while I’m here is to get some at-bats and contribute to the team any way I can,” said Franco, who was designated for assignment by the Atlanta Braves two weeks ago. After clearing waivers, he agreed to a minor league assignment. The former American League batting champ, who turns 49 next week, said he would stay with Rome for the next four days, and might join next week’s road trip in Savannah. Franco’s career has included eight major league teams as well as stints in Mexico, Japan and Korea. He likely will rejoin Atlanta on Sept. 1 when the major league rosters are expanded.

Orioles: The Orioles and first-round draft pick Matt Wieters agreed to a contract with a $6 million signing bonus. Wieters was the fifth overall selection in the June draft. The 21-year-old catcher batted .358 with 10 homers and 59 RBIs in 56 games with Georgia Tech this season. He refused to speculate on where he would land in the Orioles’ organization or when he would play in the majors. “Right now we still have to get the physical done and we’ll decide where to go from there,” Wieters said.

Associated Press