New York Yankees: Handling Alex Rodriguez's Farewell Poorly

After being “forced” to end his New York Yankees playing career, Alex Rodriguez has not received proper treatment from the Yankees during his send-off.

When a ballplayer is batting .204/.252/.356, you wouldn’t want him to play in your everyday lineup. When he can no longer play in the field and is limited to a strict designated hitter role, that brings into question why this ballplayer is even on the roster. When that player is revealed to be New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, issues arise and this brings another side into this debate.

Rodriguez has not been the same player as he was in 2015, where he hit 33 home runs following a one-year suspension. 2016 has not been “magical” for him and has led to him watching games from the bench. This drama reached its conclusion on Sunday, when Rofriguez announced that his Yankee playing career would end on Friday, August 12. He was essentially forced into retirement by co-owner Hal Steinbrenner and has not received a pleasant farewell.

Not having A-Rod in the lineup during his final week when there is nothing at stake is disrespectful. Sure, the Yankees don’t owe A-Rod anything, but this ordeal has ballooned into a PR nightmare.

During Sunday’s press conference, Alex mentioned how embarrassing it felt to be sitting on the bench instead of contributing to the team. He felt he still had some home runs left in him. Alex has 696 career home runs, and it would’ve been fun to see him reach 700. Despite how badly he was playing this season, he is still the main attraction for the team. People will buy tickets to see A-Rod chase the exclusive home run club, not to watch a mediocre team pretend to be contenders.

Trading away Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman meant that the Yankees officially waved the white flag for this season. The 2016 Yankees are not a playoff team. Thinking otherwise would be foolish. With that in mind, many fans want to see the young players develop. With the kids starting and the veterans rotating into the DH slot, A-Rod hasn’t received much playing time over the past few months. Had he been the DH for three games this week, he may be even closer to 700. This was not the case, and A-Rod has been sitting quietly on the sidelines.

Unlike how the Yankees believed in Chase Headley when he was at rock bottom earlier this year, they have not reciprocated that sentiment towards Rodriguez. 2016 is what everyone expected to see from A-Rod last year. He proved everyone wrong last year, but was not given the same opportunity this year. Suddenly, his age and health were to blame for his struggles and the team lost faith in him.

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One would assume that after Alex announced Friday would be his last game, he would be in the lineup during his final week. Sunday, manager Joe Girardi said that he would ask A-Rod if he also wanted to play in the games at Boston before the Tampa Bay game. Alex said yes. Surprisingly, he wasn’t in the lineup on Tuesday and did not start on Wednesday either, however he did pinch-hit in the game Wednesday. This looks very bad for Girardi and the Yankees, who still are believing the pipe dream that the team can still make the playoffs.

He can give the generic “we are trying to win every game” response, but that isn’t good enough. Girardi should be smart enough to realize that the Yankees are not going anywhere this year, especially when Aaron Hicks and Chase Headley are receiving consistent playing time.

I don’t particularly like some of Girardi’s managerial decisions as of late, characterized by his reluctance to put Alex in the lineup. In recent weeks, it looked like he blacklisted Rodriguez and would not play him under any circumstance. Rodriguez has been very classy and respectful throughout this period, but the Yankees are looking like they are trying to block him. Girardi was one of Alex’s strongest supporters last year, but this year Joe is the complete opposite. To some, this change looks like a direct order from the front office. I don’t think they want him to hit his 700th home run, and are using this year to publicly shame him for his steroid past.

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The end of Alex’s days with the Yankees has been very disappointing and disrespectful. It makes sense to play him during his final week, just to see if he could hit four more home runs. Each at-bat could have been must-see television and would have countless fans tuning in.

Instead, they have to wait until Thursday or Friday to see if Alex can do the impossible. Rodriguez is scheduled to be in the starting lineup for the final two games of his career, and he will need some magic if he is going to hit four more home runs.

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New York Yankees are Poorly Handling Alex Rodriguez’s Final Week

By Nikhil Potpally | Aug 11, 2016

After being “forced” to end his New York Yankees playing career, Alex Rodriguez has not received proper treatment from the Yankees during his send-off.