A tearful Alex Rodriguez announced he is retiring this week, and will join the team’s front office.
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A-Rod essentially said the same thing after tearfully announcing he’d play his final big-league game on Friday at Yankee Stadium against the Rays – after which he’ll become a special advisor and instructor with the Yankees through 2017, when his 10-year, $275 million contract runs out. “No one should be surprised if another team reaches out in the next couple of weeks or for next season and Rodriguez’s tenure as a Yankees organizational adviser has the staying power of a Trump news cycle”. Rodriguez met with the owner and general manager after the press conference and discussed a proposal. He was emotional as he reflected on his career.
Matcovich said ticket inventory for Friday’s game had dropped 71% since Rodriguez made his announcement, but he pointed out that’s not just because Yankees fans are devouring tickets to see the contest. “Based on listening to both of them, I don’t think it would be a forced situation”. “And, I haven’t thought much more than that”.
Rodriguez also thanked his family, coaches and teammates in an opening statement. And with an admission that “no athlete’s career ends the way you want it to”, he looked the part but refused to say he was done. “We all want to keep playing forever”. But it doesn’t work that way. “Saying goodbye may be the hardest part of the job, but that’s what I’m doing today”.
“This is another way I can bring value to the franchise”, Rodriguez said.
Earlier this week, Rodriguez talked about his future without detailing what it would entail.
Whether or not Rodriguez will be voted into the Hall of Fame in 2022 remains to be seen. Me and my brother were at the Yankees-Red Sox game in Fenway Park and I remember watching him hit a home run over the Green Monster.
“He’s earned the right for us to sit down and have a conversation, ” Girardi said. The Yankees didn’t want to have a 41 year old bench player making 21 million on the team which is understandable. “That was the Yankees decision and I’m at peace with it”.
“It’s been painful and embarrassing to sit on the bench”, Rodriguez said when asked about his playing time. Rodriguez will provide the Yankees regular feedback and analysis regarding the club’s minor league system. He’s a three-time Most Valuable Player and finished in the Top 10 in MVP balloting 10 times. He admitted to using them just 48 hours after SI’s report, in an interview with ESPN.
The last time A-Rod came off this vulnerable was the Biogenesis suspension, and it took every ounce of MLB’s punitive might to drop that hammer.
The three-time MVP nears retirement with 3,114 hits and 696 home runs, good enough for fourth on the all-time homer list behind Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714).
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And after promising for months that he would tell his story at the appropriate time, when he had his chance in a Park Avenue conference room in front of the arbitrator hearing what had been a sham of a case, he slammed his hand down on the table and said this was “bull–t”, and stormed out to a waiting auto, past yahoo demonstrators and hustlers who really did act in those days as if Rodriguez were a political prisoner. A-Rod will have until Friday to add to his career home run total, which now sits at 696, fourth highest in history. Rodriguez is still owed $21 million in $2017 and 7 million in 2017 and for the remainder of this year; the new deal will presumably ensure Rodriguez receives most, if not all of that bounty.
