A-Rod and the club made the announcement before Sunday’s home game against Cleveland.
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“This is a tough day“.
“I don’t think the conversation got that strong or aggressive, they didn’t need to”, Rodriguez said. Announcing a press conference on a Saturday night in early August for the next morning, and then announcing in that press conference that the team’s most iconic remaining player will be retiring after the game on Friday is not how those scripts generally go. He re-signed with the Yankees for a contract worth $275 million over 10 years. But Cashman also said the door is open for Rodriguez to sign and play for another team; should one take on all that comes with signing A-Rod, it could have him the rest of this season for about $200,000, with the Yanks paying the balance.
“It has been very painful and embarrassing to sit on the bench”, he added.
Since returning from his 162-game suspension, Rodriguez has returned to the good graces with his relationship with the team and fans but this year it has become apparent keeping Rodriguez on the team creates an awkward situation for all involved. “It has been a pleasure for me to spend this season with him, and also the time we had in spring training”.
But he made it clear he still thinks he could contribute on the field. “That wasn’t in the cards”. I will never forget one day when we set up a visit at a ballfield in the Bronx after a Yankee game, and there were over 3000 kids and parents waiting for him.
After Rodriguez’s last game, he will be unconditionally released by the club and he’ll go back home to Florida.
“He gets everything he deserves, the contract he negotiated in full force”, general manager Brian Cashman said.
In short, Rodriguez has made a decision to call it a career by retiring on the 12th. Steinbrenner offered A-Rod one more big game on Friday instead of unceremoniously cutting him.
“A lot’s happened in the last 72 hours”, Rodriguez said.
“He played a long time, since he was 18 years old”, Sabathia said. “You know, when Hal told me I just told him, ‘Give me a few days”. Imagine that. Rodriguez, a three-time MVP and owner of 696 home runs, actually is penciled in to play. “All I can tell you was it a brain cramp, a real brain cramp”, Joe Girardi said.
According to Mark Teixeira – who on Friday announced his retirement following the 2016 season – Rodriguez is an invaluable teammate as an example of hard work and baseball intelligence. Rodriguez suggested he didn’t want to leave the active roster, but was “at peace” with the transition.
The 41-year-old designated hitter has a.204 average this season with nine homers and 29 RBIs in 216 at-bats.
It’s been a career of great accomplishments and much controversy. He was voted to the All-Star Game 14 times and signed a $275 million contract with the Yankees in 2007 – then the richest deal in baseball history. After a brief stint with the Texas Rangers, he landed in the Bronx in 2004 and helped lead the Yankees to a World Series win in 2009.
But Rodriguez’s gaudy stats were tarnished in the eyes of many by his admission in 2013 that he had used performance-enhancing drugs.
Starting in 2008, Rodriguez made six trips to the disabled list in six seasons.
Alex’s steroid use caught up with him and cost him the entire 2014 season when he was suspended.
But there was no mistaking that Rodriguez was defiant even as he said his thank yous on Sunday.
Asked how he’s managed to fix his relationship with Yankees management, he smiled and said: “I have no idea”.
“I do want to be remembered as someone who was madly in love with the game of baseball”, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez returned from hip surgery and played while appealing the suspension, and the following January an arbitrator cut the penalty to all of the 2014 season.
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.
His slump continued at the start of this season when he hit.185 with four homers and eight RBIs in April. He batted.130 in May and was on the disabled list because of a strained right hamstring.
“I was watching the conference, and it felt like he was pushed into it”, the Queens Village resident said.
I thought A-Rod was pretty impressive in his TV debut with Fox during the 2015 post-season.
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“I think that all along we’ve expected, and a little bit of it is being hopeful, for him to make starts for us this year in September”, Roberts said. When the Rangers chose to trade him, a proposed deal to Boston fell through before the trade to NY.
