Yankees' Alex Rodriguez is playing Tuesday ... In Trenton?

This was unexpected

NEW YORK -- Yankees' designated hitter Alex Rodriguez will be returning Tuesday night from a disabled list stint but will be suiting up for the Double-A Trenton Thunder, the team announced on Twitter and later confirmed in email.

DH @AROD will play tonight for the @TrentonThunder in Trenton as part of a rehab assignment.

-- Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) May 24, 2016

Oh, uh, OK?

Most had expected A-Rod, who had a strained right hamstring, to join the club Tuesday in New York as it starts a three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays. Why? Well because manager Joe Girardi said as much on Sunday:

"We could send him on a rehab and he might swing great down there, then come up and struggle here ... or maybe not swing well down there and come up and do great here. It's just really hard to predict, so we're not going to waste his at-bats in Triple-A."

But that's exactly what they're doing--actually, they're not, they're sending him to Double-A. The Yankees' Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders are home Tuesday as well, so it's curious as to why he's headed to a lower level. (Then again, Trenton is about half as far away as Scranton, PA., so that might be it.) 

Rodriguez is hitting .194 this season with five home runs before he hit the disabled list the first week of May. He started the season in a wicked slump before knocking three home runs in the five games before he hit the DL.  

Trenton hosts New Hampshire on Tuesday. First pitch, 7:00 p.m.