12/22/24
August 07, 2016
Alex Rodriguez to retire from baseball: Inarguably the greatest shortstop to ever play the game, and certainly one of the greatest hitters in history, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees has formally announced the intention to retire next Friday, and move into a position as special advisor and instructor for New York.
While the terms of the agreement with the Yankees does allow him to pursue a position on other major league teams, his dramatic loss of skill this year makes it likely he'll have played his last game some time this week, ending an often contentious, rarely popular (with fans or media), but undeniably successful on-field career. Barring an unexpected homerun barrage in the next few days, or a stint with another team next season, he'll finish just shy of the 700 HR mark and the fourth highest total of all time.
posted by hincandenza to baseball at 10:37 PM - 2 comments
He can always choose to play somewhere else, should the opportunity arise, though I doubt it will. The Yankees are going to continue looking at young players within their system for the remainder of this season. Apparently Girardi and Cashman wanted him released to open another roster spot but Steinbrenner doesn't like the idea of just letting a guy go when they're on the hook for so much salary. This scenario is the best option for all involved.
I have mixed feelings about the guy. Do I really like him? No. I think he lives in a different world and has a lot of issues. Money just isn't one of them. Looking at the ridiculous amount of money he was signed for, my opinion is nobody could ever truly earn that much money. Numbers-wise, his approximately 350 homers and 1,100 RBI as a Yankee is a lot of production. The PEDs are something I choose to ignore at this point in my life, with all players, because I just want to watch baseball (and the fact baseball itself looked the other way for so long). But I'm not going to hate him. I personally have no reason to. He's a flawed human being, but, just as with Barry Bonds, he's one of the greatest all-around talents the game has ever seen.
posted by dyams at 01:08 PM on August 08, 2016
The timing seems odd to me, setting a mid-August date as opposed to end of the season. I am kind of curious if the Yankees will even play him at all over the next few days, and what they'll do if he actually hits a couple of homeruns before 8/17 (lord knows, if he gets playing time, he might as well swing for the fences in every single at-bat). Do they extend the agreement to the end of the season or at least until he reaches the milestone?
With the Yankees effectively out of contention this year, it seems almost spiteful to pull the plug with 51 games left in the season. The reasons wouldn't be financial; after settling a dispute on his bonus for tying Willie Mays with 660 last year, his next contractual homerun bonus wouldn't have come until 714.