After admitting to the DEA about his PED use, the Yankees need to find a way to get rid of A-Rod — as impossible as it may seem.
It seems like blasphemy that the same team that saw two of its classiest, Cooperstown faces of the franchise (Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter) retire in back-to-back seasons will go from first-class talent to last-class trash.
But this is where the New York Yankees find themselves going into 2015: from dealing with a pair of star-studded farewell tours for both Mo and Jeter, to dealing with the continuous drama that is Alex Rodriguez and his PED scandal.
On Tuesday, the New York Daily News reported that A-Rod had agreed to cooperate with federal agents in investigating the Biogenesis doping scandal back on Jan. 29 and signed a proffer agreement then that granted him limited immunity of he honestly aided investigators.
On Wednesday, the Miami Herald added in that Rodriguez confirmed that he paid Anthony Bosch $12,000 a month for steroid cream, edible testosterone “gummies” and HGH injections. He also admitted that Bosch coached him on beating MLB drug tests and the middleman in this was A-Rod’s cousin Yuri Sucart, who A-Rod paid to keep quiet.
"“The likelihood is that he never played a day clean in the major leagues. Why? Insecurity. Alex doesn’t know how good he could be without drugs, and didn’t trust himself to find out.” -Tom Verducci"
Back on Jan. 11, 2014, Rodriguez denied using steroids or PED’s stating that he “did not use performance-enhancing substances” and vowed to take baseball to federal court.
“I don’t know how he faces teammates now in spring training after all the stuff that went on (in 2013 and early 2014) and all his denials, even after he had admitted everything to the feds,” one baseball official said.
Now with Rodriguez coming off his season-long suspension, the question now is how the Yankees, let alone Major League Baseball and its fans deal with A-Rod’s return in 2015.
The logical response the Yankees should take is to let A-Rod go and let another team deal with him. They still owe him $61 million, so it’s unlikely that they will let him go thanks to baseball’s guaranteed contracts.
While the Yankees seem willing to slot Rodriguez in as the designated hitter in 2015, the other big thing that everyone will watch for will be how he performs on the diamond.
Rodriguez played in just 44 games in 2013, hitting .244/.348/.423 with seven home runs and 19 RBI, all of which were career-lows since 1998 (.232, 5 HR, 19 RBI in 48 games with Seattle).
What makes the A-Rod story as intriguing as it really is, at least from a baseball perspective, is that he didn’t even need to use PED’s to achieve the numbers he did in his career. Yes, he continuously lied about using PED’s, but let’s focus on the numbers.
Rodriguez was the No.1 overall prospect in Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list in 1995 and proved his top-ranking by hitting .311 with a .948 OPS along with showing great defensive range at shortstop as an 18-year-old in Triple-A.
In his first full season in the bigs in 1996, A-Rod hit .358 with 36 homers, an MLB-leading 54 doubles with 123 RBI, notching him his first All-Star appearance and his first of 10 Silver Sluggers. He was all of 20-years-old then.
The future was bright for A-Rod, as he hit .300 or better in five of the next six seasons including his first two in Texas.
However the start of his career as a Texas Ranger is where, reportedly, the PED fun began.
In his column about Rodriguez for Sports Illustrated in August, Tom Verducci reminds us:
“If you believe he started using [PEDs] in 2001, when he said he did, you’re a fool,” a former teammate said. “The likelihood is that he never played a day clean in the major leagues. Why? Insecurity. Alex doesn’t know how good he could be without drugs, and didn’t trust himself to find out.”
See, what a lot of us have forgotten since this whole PED scandal took over was that A-Rod was seen as “the chosen one” way before he was found guilty of PED use. He was supposed to be the one who broke the home run record cleanly and, had he not used PED’s, probably still could have done it.
While the numbers are now tainted, A-Rod has hit 654 career home runs, is the current active all-time home run leader and is fifth on the all-time career home run list, behind Willie Mays (660), Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755) and (the juiced one himself) Barry Bonds (762).
It’s been said that one can either die a hero, or live long enough to see themself become the villain.
In the following year after both the classy Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter hang up the pinstripes, the Yankees face of the franchise goes from winning for the franchise, to winning for himself.
“Alex may end up calling attention to himself, but he’s not loud about it,” former Yankee pitcher Mike Mussina said. “Alex has this motivation to be the best player in the game. When all is said and done, he wants to be the best player ever. That’s his motivation in this. That’s fine. That’s good. Everybody needs a motivation, whatever it is.”
A-Rod wanted it all: the money, the status of being the best player in the game, to be the greatest ever. Numbers-wise, he would get close to it.
Maybe it’s a fitting realization of the Yankees. The motivation of the last face of the Yankees, and (for the most part) the other 29 clubs, was to win. The motivation of the new face of the Yankees is selfishness.
Remember the days when the Yankees would spend “x-amount” to buy a star player in order to win another World Series title?
For years, the Yankees were selfish and spoiled in their ways. Now, it comes to light.
If you think about it, they have the greatest active player in the game. The same player they bought for about $200 million is the same player that is going to lead the franchise into its upcoming dark times.
Sometimes you get more than what you paid for. The Yankees bought baseball’s current greatest active player and A-Rod is the face of a franchise.
It’s too bad that the new face of the franchise in the Bronx is dirtier than a New York City subway train.
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