Maddon, A-Rod clear the air following comments over Darvish

Alex Rodriguez attempted to mend his relationship with the Chicago Cubs and manager Joe Maddon after his comments about Yu Darvish last month drew the ire of some in the organization and the right-hander's agent.

"Alex and I had a really nice discussion," Maddon said, according to Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune. "I felt good about it. Hopefully he felt the same. We talked openly about it. Under those circumstances for me, you speak in a candid manner and then you move on. I really believe through that conversation that we have a chance to be pretty good friends."

Rodriguez said on air that Darvish could be a distraction in the Cubs' clubhouse because he was rehabbing in Chicago while on the disabled list with triceps tendinitis, rather than receiving treatment away from the team.

"This is an issue that, if you're Cubs Nation, you have to watch the Yu Darvish development because it's not good inside that clubhouse right now," Rodriguez said in late July.

"When you have a guy that signs an enormous contract and he's sitting down, and you walk in the training room, and he's got two trainers working on him, you go into the video room and you have a guy looking at video ... he should be in Arizona somewhere getting treated. But don't get in the way of 25 players going after one mission: to win a ball game."

Following the meeting, A-Rod told reporters that he won't change his stance in regards to how he speaks about players during a broadcast.

"My job is to say it fairly and objectively," he said, according to Carrie Muskat of MLB.com. "I have over 25 years in the game, and I'm going to call it as I see it. We don't always have to agree on everything.

"I do have a lot of respect for Joe and the Cubs organization and I have for a long time and that hasn't changed. As a matter of fact, before I go to rehearsal, Joe and I plan to have drinks together, so that's planned, that's in the books."

Darvish, who has struggled in his eight starts since signing a six-year, $126-million deal over the winter, didn't appear upset by A-Rod's comments, but his agent, Joel Wolfe was incensed.

"I think it was classless," Wolfe told Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. "(It) bordered on unprofessional to take a little nugget of somewhat exaggerated information from one person that maybe he had history with and turning that into a spokesman for the entire team."

Darvish is still on the disabled list and isn't expected to return until late August.