“Hopefully I’ll be remembered as someone who tripped and fell a lot but kept getting up”.
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Rodriguez won two MVPs in NY, one in 2005 and the other coming in 2007.
NY was where A-Rod earned some ugly tags: Drug cheat, philandering husband, pariah, serial liar, postseason choke artist.
But Rodriguez’s gaudy stats were tarnished in the eyes of many by his admission in 2013 that he had used performance-enhancing drugs.
But he has struggled this season with a.204 average with nine homers and 29 RBIs in 216 at-bats. His 118 Wins Above Replacement rank 12th all-time, sandwiched by Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig. By the time he’s eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2022, will the climate for players tainted with PED use have changed?
You can be dazzled by all of that and by the testimonials given for Rodriguez during and after his press conference. This, of course, refers to the bouts with performance-enhancing drugs, a season-long suspension in 2014 because of it, and many lawsuits he was involved in, which included suing Major League Baseball and the Yankees.
Rodriguez, who since serving his year-long suspension has healed his relationships with fans, his teammates, and the wider baseball landscape, recognized what could be his biggest contribution to the Yankees’ farmhands.
A-Rod has a $20 million salary this year and is owed $20 million more in 2017, the final season of a $275 million, 10-year contract that was the baseball’s largest when he signed it.
Rodriguez’s release will cap a legendary but contentious career with the Yankees which saw him repeatedly embroiled in controversy since arriving in NY in 2004 from Texas. He won his sole World Series with the Yankees in 2009. Rodriguez mentioned his daughters this spring when he told ESPN he planned to retire following the 2017 season. George Steinbrenner and sons figured they’d be paying for some decline years, but couldn’t have envisioned the drama ahead. Injuries limited him to 99 games in 2011 and 122 in 2012, when he produced a career-worst.783 OPS. “Without last year’s performance, we’re not thinking about potentially being a world championship contender from July on”.
Rodriguez is also the member of some of MLB’s most exclusive clubs.
Rodriguez failed to fight back tears, breaking down several times while making the announcement. Should the Yankees buy out the final year of Rodriguez’s contract as well as the rest of this season, they would still have to pay A-Rod his money, but they could put his roster spot to use with a younger player who fits into the their future plans.
Rodriguez has started exactly one game in the past two weeks, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. At a press conference today, the Yankees made it official he would be hanging up his cleats after the August 12th game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
But his performance this past season noticeably diminished. The 41-year-old slugger also has 3,114 hits, 2,084 RBI, 2,021 runs, and 329 stolen bases during his 22-year career.
This marks the second veteran departure announced by the Yankees in three days, with first baseman Mark Teixeira on Friday announcing his retirement effective at the end of the 2016 season.
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This week, Rodriguez will join him.
