On the day the New York Yankees gave Alex Rodriguez his release as a player, Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly faced the inevitable question.

Do you feel like A-Rod could help this team right now?

"We really haven't talked about it as far as him coming here," Mattingly said. "You've got to have a place to play. In the National League you've got to play the field. He hasn't played in the field in a long time.

"I don't know where he fits right now."

At the same time, Mattingly didn't totally reject the possibility.

Asked if he considered Rodriguez capable of adapting to the NL, he said, "I think so. I think he's a guy that obviously he's played [shortstop], so that tells you he's one of the best athletes in the game in his prime.

"He moved over to third almost seamlessly. There's no reason he couldn't play first. He has the ability to do a lot of things."

Since Rodriguez announced he would retire after playing his final game with the Yankees on Friday, there have been unconfirmed reports that the Marlins have had internal discussions about him. But there has been no indication of genuine interest.

The Marlins signing the controversial one-time slugger is considered unlikely, as at 41 Rodriguez was batting .203, had lost his job as the Yankees' designated hitter and has seen very little action at any position in the field in several years.

Rodriguez, who played high school baseball in South Florida, has said he would return to his home in Miami and then serve as a special adviser to the Yankees next season.

His Miami ties and Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria's connections to the Yankees have helped fuel the rumors. In addition, Mattingly was the Yankees' hitting coach during Rodriguez's early years in New York.

"I've always liked Alex," Mattingly said. "He was always one of those guys that played hard, was never a afraid of the field. He always wanted to play. It was always everyday. You didn't have to go looking for him to play. He always wanted to play

The Marlins have been struggling to find production at first base with Justin Bour out since July 2 with a high-ankle sprain.

Bour, who had 15 home runs and 46 RBI in 68 games, has had setbacks in his rehab and isn't expected to return before September. Power production has been lacking at first in his absence.

"I'm not going to talk about anybody other than my own guys," Mattingly said. "We've obviously missed Justin over there at first. … I don't think we've been able to replace that for sure.

"We've got to try to get better. We're always looking at ways of getting better in different areas."

Not counting on Chen

Mattingly said he doesn't expect left-hander Wei-Yin Chen to be a factor the remainder of this season. Chen, who hasn't pitched since July 20 due to a sprained elbow, has begun a throwing program but is still weeks away from being ready for rehab games.

"He will run out of games on the minor league side where he has a chance to go out and compete," Mattingly said. "At this point I don't really count on Wei-Yin coming back and being a huge part of anything.

"But it's positive from the standpoint that he's doing better, he's throwing, he's on that road. Where that gets to I don't know if that's part of this season or not."

Brice's debut

Right-hander Austin Brice had a successful major league debut Friday, retiring all three hitters he faced in a clean eighth inning, two of them on strikes.

The first batter he faced was Adam Eaton, who already had four hits in the game, and Brice fanned the Chicago White Sox's leadoff hitter on four pitches. His fastball topped out at nearly 97 mph during the 11-pitch outing; he threw nine strikes.

"It's hard to put into words what you're feeling but it's a very addictive feeling. You want to keep going out there and feeling that," said Brice, who spent most of the season at Double-A Jacksonville, where he had a 2.89 ERA in 27 appearances including 13 starts.