The New York Post reports that Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriguez is almost certain to make his 2009 debut on Friday night after missing over a month recovering from hip surgery.

The plan is for Alex Rodriguez to be in the lineup as the third baseman tomorrow night in Baltimore, the Post has learned.

A conference call was scheduled between Rodriguez and members of the Yankee front office for this afternoon, and A-Rod was going to tell the organization how he felt and what his preference was for when to return from hip surgery. But the understanding going into the game, according to two sources, was that if there were no problems in today’s intra-squad game, then he would rejoin the Yanks tomorrow and play.

Rodriguez went 0-for-2 with two walks and played three innings of defense in the intra-squad game.

Rodriguez had hip surgery on May 9.

Even though he’s going to create a media distraction, the Yankees need this guy in the lineup. Xavier Nady is done for the year (although Nick Swisher is filling in admirably), Jorge Posada was just placed on the disabled list and Mark Teixeira is hitting below the Mendoza Line. The quicker A-Fraud starts hitting, the sooner the Yankees can stop skidding into the basement of the AL East. Although that would mean that their expensive pitching staff would have to stop serving up gopher balls, too.