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New York Yankees: What’s Next For Alex Rodriguez?

By Steve Contursi

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Tick tock , tick tock – the curtain is about to come down on the saga of Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees 

With a press conference scheduled for 11:00am today, it would appear that the saga of Alex Rodriguez in New York is coming to a close. Unlike his teammate Mark Teixeria who announced his retirement on Friday effective at the end of the season, Rodriguez seems reluctant to do the same apparently believing that he still has some baseball left in him.

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Soon, we will know whether or not that is true because his release by the Yankees effectively makes him a free agent. In theory, any of the 29 other major league teams can then sign him having only to pay Rodriguez a pro-rated portion of the major league minimum f the remainder of the season with the Yankees picking up the remaining portion of the $20+ million owed to him.

For the Yankees, the move to release Rodriguez solidifies a determined effort to transform both the focus and direction of the team. Noticeably, the move comes just a week after the Yankees purged the of three of their biggest stars in trade deadline deals while bringing in a haul of young talent to support the likes of Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez, and Aaron Judge who are already percolating as budding and bona fide major league players.

Meanwhile, the challenge for Rodriguez will be to find a team number one that wants him (and it should not be assumed that anyone does), and secondly to find a team that can and will use him in their lineup.

An obvious problem that will arise within that scenario is that it virtually eliminates fifteen teams who play in the National League where there is no DH. Still, a couple of interesting possibilities exist there with potentially the Marlins and the Mets having a lukewarm interest. Miami is where Rodriguez lives and the Mets desperately need a charge in their lineup. With Lucas Duda out and James Loney doing a credible but punch-less with the bat, an opportunity could open up for Rodriguez at first base for the Mets.

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From there, the string of American League teams who might be interested is endless and unpredictable. For Rodriguez though it’s now a matter of pride versus Father Time and the battle to see which one wins out.

It would be sad to see A-Rod floundering around in the field like a determined but flawed Willie Mays in 1973, his last year in the majors with the New York Mets.

Rodriguez undoubtedly wants that 700th home run to complete what is already a career with numbers that normally would make him a shoo in first ballot vote for entry into the Hall Of Fame, save for his well known deficiencies off the field.

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Rodriguez has already been quoted as saying that he is “at peace” with whatever happens and that he would be happy to return to his daughters in Miami and resuming life as a family man. That might be a stretch, but in the end that could very well be how it all plays out.

Drum roll please…….enter stage right Joe Girardi, Brian Cashman, and the star of the show Alex Rodriguez……..

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