This isn’t to feel sorry for Rodriguez – he’s made nearly half-a-billion dollars playing baseball and by all accounts has found peace in his life off the field in recent years – but it is a cautionary tale for those prodigies that follow Rodriguez’s time in the game.
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“It’s both a happy and sad day”, Rodriguez told Rosenthal. “I love this game and I love this team”, he said, often choking up. “Saying goodbye may be the hardest part of the job, but that’s what I’m doing today”.
Immediately upon retiring, the Yankees will conditionally release the all-time great slugger and sign him as a special advisor and instructor with the club. He will continue on in a role as a special advisor and instructor to the team through December 31, 2017.
He was suspended for the entire 2014 season for performance-enhancing drug use. Once the GOAT, he now has a.204 average with nine homers and 29 RBIs in 216 at-bats, and has largely been absent from his designated hitter position.
Rodriguez said he asked for the opportunity to play one more game. The contract created a Sisyphean existence that Rodriguez could never escape, no matter how many homers he hit for poor teams. “That wasn’t in the cards”. Rodriguez said, “I’m at peace with the decision”.
“We all want to keep playing forever”, Rodriguez said. “But it doesn’t work that way”. As the Yankees trend younger (Aroldis Chapman, Carlos Beltran and Andrew Miller were traded and Mark Teixeira announced his retirement Friday), Girardi has nailed Rodriguez to the bench. He is now just four home runs shy of 700 for his career, and he said the team’s decision to not play him has made him “extremely uncomfortable”. Last year, Rodriguez worked for Fox during the playoffs. He said he thought his off-the-field duties would begin at spring training next year in Tampa. Three years later, Rodriguez signed with the Yankees for $275 million over 10 years, setting another record for the most lucrative deal in pro sports history.
The Yankees have called a press conference for Sunday morning at 11 a.m. with Alex Rodriguez, GM Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi. Rodriguez confirmed Sunday that Steinbrenner started up retirement talks last week. “I give him a lot of credit for believing in me, having faith in me”. “I think I can help out in the clubhouse”, he added, “but if not, I have two attractive daughters waiting for me in Miami”.
Rodriguez helped the Yankees win the 2009 World Series but had been in repeated controversy since he arrived ahead of the 2004 season in a trade with Texas.
It’s also where he found redemption: Two MVP awards, a star turn in the 2009 postseason, and an unlikely comeback tale after serving a humbling, yearlong ban in 2014 for his role in the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal.
Starting in 2008, Rodriguez made six trips to the disabled list in six seasons.
Rodriguez, who admitted in 2009 to using performance-enhancing drugs early in his career, was the subject of much controversy in NY.
A-Rod made a successful return a year ago, when the Yankees made him a full-time DH, but his offense slid late in the season and hit.224 from September 1 on. He hit.250 with 33 homers and 86 RBIs overall. He came to NY three years after signing a 10-year, $252 million deal with Texas.
Cashman, for emphasis, took off his 2009 ring and placed it in front of him when asked what Rodriguez’s legacy in NY would be. He agreed to shift from shortstop to third base as part of the trade to the Yankees, who already had Derek Jeter at shortstop.
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A-Rod opted out of the contract after the 2007 season, became a free agent and signed the $275 million deal with the Yankees.
