Japanese Team Wanted To Trade For New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez
By Bryan Rose
From the face of the league to a near blacklisted name, Alex Rodriguez has seen the highest of the highs and lowest of the lows.
The currently injured New York Yankees third baseman has spent large parts of the last two and a half seasons in the rehab room, looking like a shell of his former self in the process when he did hit the field.
Seeing this, the SoftBank Hawks of the Nippon Professional Baseball attempted to bring A-Rod to Japan this past offseason, informing the Yankees they’d like to make a deal for the former slugger. The Yankees didn’t respond.
Per the New York Times:
"Last November, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks reached out to the Yankees through an intermediary and expressed interest in obtaining Rodriguez, according to two baseball officials who were told of the informal inquiry.The Yankees never engaged the Hawks in discussions because they knew it could not work for two obvious reasons. At the time, the Yankees knew that Rodriguez needed extensive hip surgery that would sideline him at least half the season. They would have been obliged to inform the Hawks, and at that point, their interest would almost certainly have crumbled."
More than that, any “deal” would have taken A-Rod’s approval, something that wasn’t going to happen, so the Yankees didn’t even attempt to discuss it despite the fact they probably would have loved to. Including this season, Rodriguez is still due at minimum $114 million dollars.