Rodriguez had previously said he planned to retire after the 2017 season.
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Clad in Yankees apparel on Sunday, Amanda Gordils, 20, said she wasn’t surprised when she heard the news of Rodriguez’s retirement. Rodriguez will continue on. Any manager would love to write Alex’s name in the lineup, hitting him third, put him at third base, or when he was younger, at shortstop, never have to worry, playing 150, 155 games, and know that you were going to get 140, 150 RBIs.
The three-time American League MVP has been one of the most interesting players in baseball for well over two decades.
A-Rod and the club made the announcement before Sunday’s game against Cleveland.
“This is a tough day“, Rodriguez, 41, told reporters. NY will pay him the remainder of the approximately $27 million he’s still owed as part of his $275 million, 10-year contract.
Now he gets one last week as an active player with the Yankees.
“The last four weeks have not been any fun”.
A-Rod is stuck on 696 home runs and described his last month essentially fastened to the bench as “very painful and embarrassing”. “It’s been awkward”, Rodriguez explained. “It’s been bad. So from that sense, I’m very happy that we found a solution”. “And, I haven’t thought much more than that”. “That wasn’t in the cards”. “And giving me an opportunity to stay involved and mentor the next generation of Yankees”. The 41-year-old’s new position will last through December 31, 2017.
Some Yankee fans were not exactly sad to see A-Rod go.
“He’s always had some ups and downs”, Cashman said.
In short, Rodriguez has made a decision to call it a career by retiring on the 12th.
He’s now the only active player in the 3,000 club – that exclusive group of players with more than 3,000 career hits – although Miami’s Ichiro Suzuki notched his 2,999th hit Saturday night and is poised to join him. “You always try to give it your best and it’s one thing that just stuck in my head since that day“. So Rodriguez gets the great Yankee treatment on Friday night.
The obvious choice is Seattle, who is in the playoff chase for the first time in a while, and Rodriguez is one of the faces of the greatest era in their history, in the ’90s. I was 18 when I broke into the big leagues. For Boston? That’s up to Joe.
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.
“We all want to play forever”, Rodriguez said during a news conference attended by the entire Yankees’ roster. “But it doesn’t work that way”.
Rodriguez trails only Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714) on the career home run list. He said he thought his off-the-field duties would begin at spring training next year in Tampa. “Saying goodbye may be the hardest part of the job, but that’s what I’m doing today”.
Rodriguez led the Yankees to their 2009 World Series title, but it’s been a tumultuous tenure since he arrived before the 2004 season in a trade with Texas.
Rodriguez has hit just.204 this season in 62 games.
Rodriguez’s 22-year career has been stained by the use of performance-enhancing substances.
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.
“For me, it’s just how to pitch to certain hitters”, Betances said. And I know that he can still hit.
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But there was no mistaking that Rodriguez was defiant even as he said his thank yous on Sunday. “And also, I’m going to be hopefully remembered as someone who tripped and fell a lot, but someone that kept getting up”. He also is the only major leaguer ever to have 14 seasons of at least 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. He apologised to fans in a public letter and returned a year ago (15). He responded with a 33-home run season, recorded his 3,000th hit with a home run off Justin Verlander and earned some level of reverence among teammates and fans.
