The now famous Cashman A-Rod battle may actually come down to money – go figure. As we reported yesterday Cashman has apologized for his comments (kind of) about A-Rod Tweeting he’s been cleared to play from his doctor.

However, just like most great soap-operas, there is more story lying underneath. The Yankees claim that their dispute with Rodriquez has been taken care of. But, there is news out now that the Yankees are trying to recoup money by not having A-Rod come back. And that A-Rod is rushing his return in order to receive all the money possible before he gets a MLB suspension from his PED use.

Of course Cashman let us know publicly that he really regrets his response to Rodrigrez’s tweeting about his update on his recovery from his hip problem and being ready to return. And his famous “Alex should have just shut the (F-Rod) up.”

Hal Steinbrenner spoke with A-Rod on Wednesday in Florida to remind him that organizations not players will handle injury updates. And Yankee team president, Randy Levine also had discussions about team protocol.

“It was a constructive, healthy conversation. Everybody is on the same page and we’re all going to communicate and work together to get Alex back as quickly as possible,” team spokesman Jason Zillo said. “They’re all back on track.”

But, the New York Daily News has a report speculating that Rodriguez is rushing his return for financial reasons.

The Daily News quotes a source as saying A-Rod will start playing in rehab games and then claim he he is physically unable to perform due to his hip injury and retire so that he can collect the remaining $144 million on his contract that runs for the next five years.

According to the report, a player who retires because he is physically unable to perform, even if later suspended, would be paid in full.

“It’s all about him getting his money and not losing it to suspension,” the source told the Daily News. “He knows he’s never going to the Hall of Fame. All that’s left for him is to make sure he gets his money — all of it.”

“Alex thinks there’s something really off about this situation,” a source told ESPN. “Here we have a doctor declaring him fit to play. You would think they would be happy about that.”

ESPN reports that Rodriguez is convinced the Yankees are intentionally slowing his return so they can have him declared medically unfit to play this season. That would allow the team to collect 80 percent of the $28 million due to him this season through insurance. But this is something you’re probably not going to see on his public Twitter account.