He has drawn the ire of MLB fans for years after numerous steroid allegations, and deciding to follow the money to a championship. On Friday night A-rod played his last game in an MLB uniform before joining the Yankees as a special advisor. It seems as if the Yankees have forced A-rod trying to get out from under their mountain of veterans, and start to bring up some of their younger prospects. Since coming into the game with the Seattle Mariners Rodriguez was seen as the future of the short-stop position. He played his first seven years in the bigs with the Seattle Mariners bringing new hope to a franchise that was looking for a star. After good run playing in 690 games, and hitting 189 games home runs in a Mariners uniform. He signed a historic 10 year 252 million dollar contract with the Rangers leaving Seattle. It was the biggest deal that the MLB had ever seen and set the bar for the contracts of the future.
A-Rod played only three seasons with the Rangers winning the AL MVP in 2003 and a gold glove that very same year. He played 485 games totaling 156 homer runs, and 395 RBIs. But the Rangers decided to go in a different direction, and decided to trade Rodriguez hoping to free up some cap space. After heartbreak in 2003 the Boston Red Sox tried to pull off a blockbuster deal to try and get the reigning AL MVP. The Red Sox attempted to send Manny Ramirez and John Lester to the Rangers, while Nomar Garciaparra would go to the White Sox to offset the salary cap. But it was vetoed by the players union following the restricting of his contract, that included a pay cut for Rodriguez. He would later be dealt to the Red Sox rivals the New York Yankees for all-star second baseman Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named later. The Rangers also decided to eat $67 million of the $179 million dollars left on his contract. The two teams would meet during the 2004 playoffs as the Red Sox erased the Yankees 3-0 series lead to move onto the world series. The Red Sox would go onto win the World Series ending an 86 year drought.
This was only the beginning of Rodriguez's Yankee playoff career, each post season it seemed like he was regressing. He continued to play well during the regular season helping the Yankees become an power house of the AL east. He won the MVP for the second time in his career with the Yankees, following it up two years later with another MVP in 2007. It took him five years with the Yankees to finally win a world series in 2009. It was his best postseason performance in the pinstripes and gave Yankees fans hope for the future. But in 2009 it was reported that A-Rod had tested positive for PEDs by David Epstein of Sports Illustrated. Though he tried to put these report to bed saying that "I was young, I was stupid. I was naive. And wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time." he said about testing positive in 2003 with the Rangers. Though he was not punished at the time it seemed like it would be something that stuck with him for the rest of his career.
A-Rod though was subsequently suspended in 2013 for his role in the Biogenesis scandal, where reports come out about his HGH use. He was suspended for a total of 211 regular season games, plus any playoff games from that season. After coming back to Yankees in 2015 it seemed like A-Rod's legacy would never make a comeback. He had good season during the Yankees 2015 campaign, but questions were raised about what he was doing to the franchise. He was climbing the all time home run list, but like Barry Bonds many fans were skeptical on how many of those home runs should have counted. During the 2016 season A-Rod struggled to crack the starting line-up for much of the season, seeming like spare parts for the Yankees. After Mark Teixeira announced that this would be his final season in the MLB. Many expected A-Rod to do the same. He shocked fans last Saturday by announcing that he would play his last game in a Yankees uniform that Friday. It was a tough week for A-Rod and the Yankees in the press after reports came out that he was upset about his playing time in his final games. But he showed up in his final game hitting an RBI double in a 6-3 Yankees win.
He ended his career with 696 home runs, and 2,086 RBI's throughout his 22 year career. Whether you love him or you hate, there is no denying that A-Rod was a generational talent unlike what we had ever seen before. It's a shame that his legacy will always be tainted with Steroids, and leaves many questions about what he could have done without HGH. Whether we see A-Rod in another Jersey before his career official ends, it's brought a close to the legendary Yankees dynasty of the 2000's.
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