Report: Alex Rodriguez believes he will win Yankees' third-base job

Alex Rodriguez believes he will be the starting third baseman of the New York Yankees when the season opens, according to a report from Newsday’s Steven Marcus.

The Yankees re-signed Chase Headley to a four-year, $52-million contract in the offseason, intending for Headley playing the position this season.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has already said that Rodriguez will be the team’s full-time designated hitter in 2015, telling the Associated Press “even before the suspension, he wasn't the same player at third base on the defensive or offensive side. And that was before the suspension."

Rodriguez, 39, was suspended for the entire 2014 season due to his involvement with Biogenesis, the now-closed South Florida clinic accused of giving performance enhancing drugs to dozens of major league baseball players.

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One of Marcus' sources told him that "Alex's mind is that job's not Headley's, it's Alex's to lose….that if there's a competition, Headley's got to win it from him.”

The Yankees' position players are scheduled to report to spring training on Feb. 25.

Rodriguez still has three years and more than $60 million remaining on his record-breaking $275 million contract that he signed in 2007.

- Scooby Axson