Now that [Joe Torre] is back, the Yankees have to seriously consider trading [Alex Rodriguez], recognizing there is unlikely to ever be full comfort in the clubhouse between the manager and the most sensitive player. The most overt embodiment of the frosty Derek Jeter-Alex Rodriguez relationship is played out most fully in the uncomfortable bond between Torre and Rodriguez.

So if everyone is to be taken at their word, then Torre's first job in this next, perhaps final, phase as manager is to meet soon with Rodriguez face-to-face. He needs to model this meeting off the one he had last year with George Steinbrenner at a time after the season when Torre was not sure he wanted to return and The Boss was not positive he wanted to keep Torre. To appease his mind, Torre knew he had to see Steinbrenner in person in Tampa and put all the uncomfortable issues that existed between them - the backbiting, the secondguessing questions fed to YES - on the table. No bluffing, no artifice.

Well, now Torre and Rodriguez need to stop pulling punches with each other. Rodriguez, who always seems to be reading lines from a particularly horrible p.r. agency, has to honestly tell Torre why he feels disrespected, from the lineup card to being compared unfavorably to [Jeter]. Torre needs to explain himself by delineating all the places he senses Rodriguez has tried to ignore issues of jittery nerves and ebbing confidence.