Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez said Sunday that he will play his final major-league game on Friday Aug. 12, after which he will sign a new contract with the team to remain in an advisory role next year.
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Rodriguez said after the SI story that he was a changed man, but his involvement in Biogenesis and subsequent fight to try to overcome the allegations led him to file lawsuits against baseball, the players’ association and a team doctor.
“In his 20 seasons in the league so far, Rodriguez has been named the American League MVP three times, has been nominated to the A.L. all-star team 14 times, and was part of the Yankees’ World Series winning team in 2009”.
Rodriguez is a career.295 hitter with 696 home runs and 2,084 RBIs, but he has played just 44 games this season, batting.244 with seven homers and 19 RBIs.
The Yankees made him a designated hitter in a resurgent 2015 season but he has slumped mightily this season and has started just one game since July 22. More importantly, Rodriguez hit.365 with 6 home runs, and 18 RBI in 15 postseason games that year. “That wasn’t in the cards”.
Would the Yankees have been better off if Hank Steinbrenner hadn’t caved with a fat new deal, one they’ll still be paying off next season?
Rodriguez could still sign on with another team and make a run at Babe Ruth’s record of 714 homers, but he’d likely only be signed as a PR stunt at this point.
– Manager Joe Girardi will discuss with A-Rod the possibility of playing some in Boston, where the Yankees begin a three-game series on Tuesday.
“He’s a tireless worker and an astute student of the game”, Steinbrenner said in a statement. That left him with a.250 average for the year with 33 homers and 86 RBIs. However, his career numbers were so big that he could be considered as one of the greatest players who played the game when his days are over in the Major League Baseball. When the Rangers made a decision to trade him, a proposed deal to Boston fell through before the trade to NY.
Rodriguez was traded from the Texas Rangers to the Yankees in 2004 for Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias.
“The answer is sure, of course, I think I can play baseball”, Rodriguez said. That advisor-instructor deal will last until December 31, 2017, the Yankees announced. 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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The Yankees still owe the superstar more than $30 million on his playing contract, which runs through next season.
