August 7, 2016
Peter Solari
Have we seen the last of Alex Rodriguez in Yankees pinstripes? We may have an answer to that question in just a few short hours. The embattled third basemen has called a press conference for 11 AM Sunday. General Manager Brian Cashman and Manager Joe Girardi will also be in attendance. No other details have been released at this time.
Though neither Rodriguez or the Yankees have made anything official, most are speculating that the 41-year-old will either retire, or the team will release him. If either of those scenarios come to fruition, Rodriguez's tumultuous career, will likely be over.
The Yankees are in the midst of their most radical rebuilding effort in a long time, if not ever. Their roster of aging stars have slowly been breaking down, and walking away altogether, over the past 3+ and the franchise has slipped into mediocrity after two decades of dominance. The Yankees traded arguably their three best players, Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, and Carlos Beltran, before the August 1st trade deadline for a gaggle of prospects, and their longtime first baseman, Mark Teixeira, announced he will call it a career at season's end, on Friday. It's out with the old, and in with the new in the Bronx these days, and who could blame the organization?
Between 1995 and 2012, the Yankees made the playoffs 17 times, only missing out in 2008. In that span, the team won five World Series', and seven American League pennants, while appearing in 10 American League Championship series'. In the nearly four season since, a lifetime to the Yankees and their fans, the club has appeared in just one postseason game, a dismal 3-0 loss to the Houston Astros in last year's American League Wild Card Game.
For all intents and purposes, the Bronx Bombers haven't made the playoffs since 2012. That season, Major League Baseball expanded the playoffs from eight teams (four in each league) to 10 teams (five in each league), by adding a second wild card team in each league. Instead of one club just qualifying for the playoffs as the sole wild card winner, the two wild card teams now play a one-game playoff, with the winner advancing to the Division Series. It's no different than playing a 163rd tie breaking game at the end of the season. Since expanding the schedule to 162 games in 1961, nine such tiebreakers have occurred, and not once was the loser of those contests considered a "playoff team." While MLB technically recognizes both wild card teams as "playoff teams," many observers don't feel the same.
Prior to these rule changes, the 2015 Yankees would have done enough to get into the American League Division Series. However, the new format requires them to win one more game, and they failed to do so. Ergo, the Yankees have missed the playoffs for four straight season, which is unacceptable by their standards. Considering this, the team's youth movement is a breath of fresh air, and they should be applauded for it. Consensus on the organization is that they're moving in the right direction. But that's not an excuse for treating A-Rod so poorly.
Has the A-Rod era been tumultuous saga? No doubt about it. He's cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in contract money, and countless headaches off the field. When he arrived in the Bronx in 2004, he and the-Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, were best friends. Before too long, the two stars were barely speaking to each other. And his teammates weren't the only ones with which Rodriguez had a rocky relationship. Due to his postseason struggles at the plate, New York fans started to turn on him. After the results of what was supposed to be a confidential failed drug test were leaked, Rodriguez became public enemy #1 around baseball. The chickens finally came home to roost in 2014, when A-Rod was suspended for the entire baseball season for PED-use. Rodriguez had hit rock-bottom. But this represented a turning point for both the Yankees and their now-disgraced third baseman.
To his credit, Rodriguez served his time, didn't complain, at least not publicly, and wasn't a distraction to his team. In 2015, A-Rod reported to Spring Training in Tampa, and to the surprise of many, was a model citizen. Was he a distraction? Maybe a little at first, but that was more the doing of the media than his own. After speaking with members of the press in early Spring, the Yankees' preseason went off without a hitch. By time the regular season rolled around, all was forgiven, even forgotten, in Yankees-town.
In 2015, Rodriguez experienced a resurgence. At the age of 40, he led the club in home runs with 33 and added 86 RBIs (second on the team), while appearing in 151 games. The hope was that A-Rod would be able to continue those ways in 2016, but it wasn't meant to be.
Rodriguez is currently in the worst slump of his career. Thus far, he's only appeared in 62 of the Yankees' 110 games and is batting a dismal .204 with just 9 home runs and 29 RBI. Recently he's been relegated to an occasional pinch-hitter role, and Girardi has told the press he doesn't envision A-Rod getting many at-bats down the stretch, essentially ending his Yankees career.
It makes perfect sense for the Yankees to move on from A-Rod. They're getting younger, and he's getting older, and his play has rapidly declined. However, barring his retirement or an unlikely trade between now and the end of next season, the team will still have to pay him the remaining approximately $7 million he's owed this season, and another $21 million for the final year on his contract next year. So releasing him won't save them any money. And while it makes sense for the club to at least open up his roster spot in 2017, this year's team is going nowhere fast, so there's no reason to rush him out the door now. So why are the Yankees so eager to part ways with their once-first ballot Hall of Famer? Maybe it's personal.
A-Rod is currently only four home runs shy of 700 for his career, a feat only accomplished by Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds, before. It's a tremendous achievement that the organization seems dead-set against him reaching in a Yankees uniform.
Regardless of what Cashman or Girardi say, the Yankees have waved the white flag on their season. They've broken up the team and they're looking towards the future, so it's not as if they're desperate for every win they can get. Where's the harm in giving Rodriguez some at-bats and a chance to hit four home runs, and saying your goodbyes at seasons end? There is none. The Yankees are just being petty, and this isn't the first time they've done it.
In 2007, Rodriguez entered into a marketing contract with the Yankees that would pay him a total of $30 million if he broke Major League Baseball's career home run record. Rodriguez was due a $6 million bonus every time he tied one of the four players ahead of him on the list (Wille Mays 660 home runs, Babe Ruth 714 home runs, Hank Aaron 755 home runs, Barry Bonds 762 home runs), and another $6 million if he surpassed them all. On May 1, 2015, A-Rod his 660th career home run at Fenway Park in Boston, tying Mays, but the Yankees didn't want to pay him the bonus, arguing that the contract didn't obligate them to. The two sides ultimately agreed to donate $3.5 million to charity.
Later that season, on June 19th, Rodriguez recorded the 3,000th hit of his career when he belted a home run off of Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander at Yankee Stadium. It was another legendary feat that was met with much pomp in the past, but the Yankees went out of their way not celebrate A-Rod, as though it was no big deal. Finally, three months later and on the NFL's opening Sunday, the Yankees honored Rodriguez in a low key ceremony on September 13th.
It's highly unlikely that any team will give A-Rod a new contract when his Yankees career inevitably ends, and it's more unlikely that he'll see the inside of the Hall of Fame anytime soon. Yes, his time in New York has been tumultuous, but he's also given New York a lot of good moments. Without him in 2009, the Yankees wouldn't have won the World Series, and would be mired in a nearly-two decade championship drought. Will they really get any satisfaction out of sticking it to him one more time? It's sad if they would.
This could truly be Alex Rodriguez's last opportunity for a moment in the sun, and the Yankees should let him have it.
