Rodriguez announced Sunday that he will play his final major league g.
Advertisement
In an nearly unexpected announcement, the New York Yankees will release Alex Rodriguez, their prized DH, after Friday Night’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium. That will be Friday’s home game against the Tampa Bay Rays, and Rodriguez says the club’s management has assured him he’ll “get a few at-bats”. Rodriguez will continue on.
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. “I love this game and I love this team”, he said, often choking up. Saying goodbye may be the hardest part of the job. Rodriguez has admitted to using PED’s, and was even suspended for the entire 2014 season. And as it legally must be, Rodriguez will get every cent of the approximately $26.4 million owed through next year.
The Rangers eventually traded him to NY in 2004, where he deferred to Yankee legend Derek Jeter and moved from shortstop to third base.
“The last four weeks have been awkward, painful and embarrassing”, Rodriguez said. “It’s been awkward”, Rodriguez explained. I’m sad to see A-Rod go, but it’s clearly the best thing for the Yankees at this point in time.
Alex Rodriguez will exit his 22-year baseball career healthy physically and upbeat about his future.
“You always think you have one more hit, and you can help the team win one more game, for sure”, Rodriguez said. “That wasn’t in the cards”. Rodriguez, who is still due approximately $27 million over the remainder of his contract, will be unconditionally released after the August 12 game, but he’ll still stick around the organization as an instructor and special advisor through December 31, 2017 while receiving his full payment. “He will report directly to Hal Steinbrenner and offer instruction to players in conjunction with the Yankees Baseball Operations and Player Development Departments”.
General manager Brian Cashman acknowledged that Rodriguez has a right to change his mind and pursue any potential opportunity. The Yankees wanted to use their financial clout to re-create the 1927 Yankees, and Rodriguez was the Babe Ruth – no pressure.
In two face-to-face meetings with just them in the room, I was told, Hal Steinbrenner never gave A-Rod an ultimatum that he agree to some kind of parachute landing or just out-and-out be released. “I have not thought much more than that”.
The 41-year-old bats just.204 with nine home runs this season.
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. “But it doesn’t work that way”.
“I want to be remembered as someone who is madly in love with the game of baseball… and hopefully as someone who tripped and fell a lot but kept getting up”. He is fourth on the all-time home run list with 696, trailing leader Barry Bonds (762) by 66. “Hopefully we can send him off with a thank you for a great career”.
A-Rod opted out of the final three years of his deal after the 2007 season, ultimately signing his $275 million contract with the Yankees.
He’ll play his last game next Friday before transitioning to a new role with the organization.
But Rodriguez’s gaudy stats were tarnished in the eyes of many by his admission in 2013 that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. Could Rodriguez call it quits at year’s end like fellow teammate Mark Teixeira?
He 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.
Advertisement
A-Rod made a successful return previous year, when the Yankees made him a full-time DH, but his offense slid late in the season and hit.224 from September 1 on. That left him with a.250 average for the year with 33 homers and 86 RBIs.
