And there is no doubt that someone who has played 19 major-league seasons has amassed a lot of knowledge.
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“The answer is, sure, of course, I think I can play baseball”, Rodriguez said Saturday during his farewell press conference. Rodriguez will continue on.
Ready or not, Alex Rodriguez will play his final game in pinstripes this week. In their chat, the concept of Rodriguez becoming a special advisor came up and the 41-year-old accepted it while getting paid the remainder of his contract.
Alex Rodriguez announces retirement from New York Yankees.
“This is a tough day“, Rodriguez said, his voice wavering. “I love this game, I love this team and today I’m saying goodbye to both”.
After his release, Rodriguez will sign a new contract to serve as an instructor for younger players until December 31, 2017.
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner had reached out to Rodriguez on Wednesday about possibly retiring. Besides, it’s not as if he’s being used, anyway; as he himself argued, “it’s been very painful and embarrassing to sit on the bench”. It’s been awkward, ” Rodriguez said. We’re in a very big market, he’s a superstar that’s been struggling, so it put everyone on heightened alert, ‘What’s next, what’s next?’. “That wasn’t in the cards”.
While Gardner is not pleased, the Yankees decision will allow younger players to see the field, which will help jumpstart the Yankees’ rebuild. I want to thank the Steinbrenner family for giving me this opportunity and for making me part of this team and for giving me an opportunity to stay involved by mentoring the next generation of Yankees.
General manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi explained why they believe Rodriguez will be great in his new role.
At the Sunday news conference, Rodriguez did not completely dismiss the suggestion that he might play for another team.
“This goes back to the first day I met him, ” Girardi said. In 1996, at the ripe old age of 20, Rodriguez produced 9.4 WAR – which is still tied for the 87th-best season in Major League Baseball history and was, at the time, easily the most WAR produced in one season at that age.
What could have been a story for baseball folklore turned into another sad story about an entitled big league player who disrespected the game by trying to get an unnatural edge.
Rodriguez is batting just.204 this season with nine home runs and 29 RBI. Rodriguez has only had one start and seven trips to the plate since July 22.
Earlier this week, Rodriguez talked about his future without detailing what it would entail.
When the fourth-place Yankees (56-55) jettisoned veterans Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran leading up to last week’s trade deadline, they made it clear they were turning toward a youth movement. If you don’t have any honor, we simply don’t want you in the system. “But it doesn’t work that way”.
It came with a $10 million signing bonus and salaries of $21 million for the first three years and deferred money tied to those years of an additional $40 million.
With Rodriguez’s departure and with Teixeira’s upcoming retirement, Gardner and CC Sabathia would be the only players remaining from the 2009 World Series roster.
He was suspended for the entire 2014 season for performance-enhancing drug use.
The Yankees said Rodriguez in his new role will be assigned to work with various players at all levels of the farm system, including numerous club’s top prospects.
“I have no idea”, Rodriguez said.
Still, his age seemed to catch up with him this season, leaving him a good citizen, but an unproductive one in baseball terms.
“As far as 700, or any of those type of milestones, I would have had an unbelievable, fun time going after them”, Rodriguez said.
When asked by a reporter what made him decide to step down almost two months before the end of the season, Rodriguez said: “That was the Yankees’ decision and I am at peace with it”. He hit.312 with 17 homers and 78 RBIs last season.
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-Oakland Athletics right-hander Sonny Gray was placed on the disabled list due to a strained right forearm. His average rose to.267 with two homers and 13 RBIs in June before dropping again. It really opened my eyes to what I could do to help myself and help my team better in preparation.
