Alex Rodriguez‘s 22-year major league career was filled with crowning achievements and no shortage of turbulence – none bigger than those in his dozen years spent with the New York Yankees.
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Rodriguez and the club made the announcement before Sunday’s 3-2 victory over Cleveland.
“This is a tough day“.
So at about 10:30, 10:45 I saw Alex and just kind of, gave him a ‘what’s up.’ And even Alex, before 11 o’clock wouldn’t tell me. Today, I say goodbye to both.
Friday’s home game against the Tampa Bay Rays will be Alex Rodriguez’s final major league baseball game.
He was suspended for the entire 2014 season for performance-enhancing drug use.
He has been the most-loved and most-hated player for more than a generation of baseball fans. “That wasn’t in the cards”. “I’m obviously disappointed but I’m also at peace with their decision”.
“We all want to keep playing forever”, Rodriguez said. “But it doesn’t work that way”.
“The conversation never got that far”, said Rodriguez, who has seen his at-bats disappear as the Yankees moved toward youth and beyond 2016, beginning with the trades of Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran for prospects. He trails only Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714) on the career list.
A-Rod’s new duties will begin in earnest next spring training, where he’ll also serve as a guest instructor. Among the ignoble highlights, Rodriguez angered fans and colleagues alike in 2007 when he opted out of his contract with the Yankees in what turned out to be a hardball negotiation that netted him a 10-year, $275 million contract.
Alex Rodriguez became the second member of the New York Yankees to retire in the space of 48 hours. He’d play until he’s 60 if he could because he made bad decisions, but he loves the game of baseball.
General manager Brian Cashman confirmed that Rodriguez and the team did not reach any type of settlement on his contract. Rodriguez would not elaborate on details.
“I have not thought past the pinstripes”, said Rodriguez.
I thought A-Rod was pretty impressive in his TV debut with Fox during the 2015 post-season. And it’s just what do you after the fact, at some point, when the balance comes back in play, and I think Alex has really returned and been great in that clubhouse, tremendous with our coaches, tremendous with the front office.
Rodriguez is still owed $21 million in $2017 and about $7 million for the remainder of this year; the Yankees will release him following Friday’s game and he’ll continue in a role as an advisor through 2017.
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.
Rodriguez, whose career was tainted by his use of performance-enhancing drugs, said his decision to accept the role was a hard one. “He always has been”, Cashman said of Rodriguez.
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Rodriguez could still decide that he wants to play baseball for at least one more year. But if A-Rod no longer plays a position in the field – having been relegated to a designated hitter role with the Yankees during the past two seasons – that might not be an ideal fit, unless he can play first base or tries to crank out those final four homers as a frequent pinch-hitter. He is in a 4-for-36 (.111) slump and has struck out in five of his last six at-bats.
