The New York Yankees might not want to hear it, but they need Alex Rodriguez this year.
In the last few months, since his reinstatement from a year long suspension, the Yankees have been taking shots at A-Rod. First, telling him (publicly, I might add) that they don’t consider him a starter; then that they don’t even see him as a fielder; and finally rebuffing his offer of a conciliatory meeting and asking him not to show up to Spring Training early. And now they’re fighting to get out of pre-arranged home run bonuses that they’d have to pay him for milestone blasts.
It’s very uncommon for an employer, let alone one as public as a professional sports team, to show such open contempt for one of its employees. At this point, given the way they’ve treated Rodriguez and their clear desire not to have any sort of relationship with him, it might make the most sense for the Bombers to simply eat the $61 million remaining on his contract and cut the former star.
In fact, fans and media blowhards have been clamoring for just that outcome for more than a year. However, despite a whole list of actions and statements against Rodriguez, the Yanks have hesitated to take that final step. Why? Because the only thing worse than Rodriguez failing as a Yankee is Rodriguez succeeding on another team.
We are still talking about one of the most talented players to ever live. It’s true that we don’t know how much of his success was drug-assisted and that the last couple seasons have seen major, major regression, but Alex Rodriguez was once on his way to a legitimate place in the ‘greatest player ever’ conversation. If he hits all of his (reasonably attainable) home run incentives, he’d have the most homers in major league history. Full stop.
It’s vastly more likely that the Rodriguez we see in 2015 will most resemble the A-Rod we saw in 2013 and 2012 and not any of the previous, better versions, but it’s definitely possible that the 39 year old Rodriguez, rejuvenated perhaps by a year off to rest and recover from multiple hip injuries/surgeries, will be a productive major leaguer.
Now don’t get me wrong, there is virtually no way A-Rod lives up to the $22 million he’ll be paid this season, but isn’t .260 with 18 or 20 homers a possibility? The guy couldn’t be more healthy.
Moreover, as much as the Yankees want to antagonize Rodriguez, the fact of the matter is that a right handed hitter with power who can maybe fill in at third every now and then is hugely valuable right now, especially for a team that, let’s face it, isn’t that good.
The Yankees need all the help they can get. Their roster is top heavy; guys like Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Masahiro Tanaka are studs but after them we see a whole list of old former stars that need to preform if the Yankees want to make a run at even 85 wins in 2015. As far as DH goes, the plan right now is to use whichever old fielder needs some rest with Garrett Jones–a guy cast off by both the Marlins and the Pirates. A productive A-Rod could go a long way towards deepening the lineup and providing some much needed balance considering that every player on the roster who’s even passable as a starter seems to bat left handed.
Most importantly, Alex could spare Yankees fans the horror of seeing Chis Young in the lineup on a regular basis.
Old, immobile 39 year old hitters are generally not the best MLB players, but we’ve never seen a player starting from such a high talent level get to take a rest year and then try to come back. Of course, the most likely scenario is that Rodriguez is a .230 hitter and the Yankees are stuck with a useless $21 million roster anchor for the next two seasons. It’s even possible that he hits .195 and the Yankees decide the headache isn’t worth it now that they know for sure he’s washed up and they finally cut him. But there’s also a chance he’s good and as much as the team and the fans might not want to admit it, their 2015 success depend on that possibility.
-Max Frankel
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