Johnny Damon on A-Rod: 'I think a lot of his former teammates are rooting for him'

Alex Rodriguez remains an increasingly unpopular figure among baseball fans, but some of former colleagues still have his back.

Johnny Damon, who spent four seasons as Rodriguez's teammate with the New York Yankees, stressed Friday on MLB Network Radio that the embattled third baseman isn't a bad guy.

"I think a lot of his former teammates are rooting for him ... Alex is a good guy," Damon said.

Rodriguez is poised to return to the field in 2015 after incurring a 162-game suspension that sidelined him for the entire 2014 campaign, a penalty meted out for his role in the Biogenesis scandal. Though it remains unclear how Rodriguez will fare after a season-long hiatus, at least one of his current teammates is prepared to welcome him back, as long as he can help the team win.

“Guys in the clubhouse, we’re there for one reason; we’re trying to play baseball and trying to do the best we can as a team, make it into October and win a World Series,” Brett Gardner said earlier this month. “If he is a guy who is going to help us do that, we obviously welcome him. I know that things will be a little different with the fans, especially at the start, but hopefully as the season goes on it will be business as usual.”