By MIKAEL DeSANTO
On Friday August 12, Alex Rodriguez will play in his final Major League Baseball game when his New York Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium. Rodriguez is expected to be in the starting lineup for the game, most likely as the designated hitter, before retiring and returning to his home in Miami for the rest of the year. The Yankees have said they will sign him as a hitting instructor and advisor while still paying him the remainder of his player contract. So, with his career near the end, here’s fives things you should know about A-Rod.
1. He’s been doing this a long time
When you think of what a normal MLB career is for someone who becomes a starter or everyday player, you’d probably think a guy debuts at around maybe 22 or 23, and then plays until he’s around 37, 38 or so. But career length is something that has been atypical for Mr. Rodriguez. After he was drafted first overall in the 1993 First Year Player Draft, it didn’t take him long to make the big leagues, debuting about a year later at the age of 18. At the age when most people are still deciding what they are doing for the rest of their life, Rodriguez had already reached the pinnacle of his profession and was on the fast track to being a superstar on his team. But not only did Rodriguez start early, he’s going to end much later than his fellow ball players. Upon his retirement, Rodriguez will be 41 years old, making it 23 years and 22 seasons, and actually one month longer, since he first debuted. This length of a career is almost unheard of, even today. The inclusion of the designated hitter starting in 1973 has extended the careers of many elite hitters (Frank Thomas, Jim Thome and David Ortiz to name a few), but even Thomas and Ortiz, two Hall of Fame caliber hitters, only played 18 years despite being DH’s. It’s also worth mentioning that he’ll have played only five less seasons than Nolan Ryan and Cap Anson, who have played the most seasons ever.
2. He’s rounding out in familiar places
On July 8, 1994, Rodriguez made his debut against the Boston Red Sox in Boston. He collected his first career hit during that series, the first of many for his career. But before he gets to his final game in New York, he had to complete one final series on the road, and oddly enough it was against the Red Sox. So his last road series was exactly where his first was, in Boston. In his final game in Boston, A-Rod batted cleanup and was the DH, going 0-for-4 and driving in one run on a tapper in front of the plate. But that isn’t where the interesting opponents end. He joined the Yankees in 2004 and hit his first home run as a Yankee that year against who else but Tampa Bay, known then as the Devil Rays. So it appears his career is coming full circle, especially the Yankee portion, as he will finish against the team he started his Yankee success against.
3. He didn’t stick around at first
With all the success he has had in his career, one could imagine that when he was called up to the big leagues he stayed there, but this was not the case. In fact, his first full season didn’t come until 1996, two years after he debuted. Through his first two seasons he played a combined 65 games, and it’s understandable why he didn’t stuck. In 17 games in 1994, he had a .204 batting average with no home runs and two runs batted in, but struck out 20 times. In 1995, he batted .232 with five home runs, 19 RBI’s and 42 strikeouts. Now he did follow up with an All-Star season in 1996, leading the American League in batting average (.358), doubles (54) and runs scored (141), coming in second place in MVP voting, but he did transition to the majors as well as the rest of his career suggests he should have. He was human too and needed some time in the minors to find his way, which is understandable for a guy who went straight from high school to the pros.
4. Changing positions didn’t change his production
After being traded to the Yankees during the offseason prior to the 2004 season, Rodriguez, a shortstop in Seattle and Texas, needed to switch positions due to the Yankees already having a starting shortstop, a guy by the name of Derek Jeter. So he became the everyday third baseman, a position vacated by the injury of Aaron Boone, and a position he had played during an inning in the 2001 All-Star Game to allow Cal Ripken Jr. to play shortstop again. A dip in production due to focusing on the position transition would be very understandable, except he didn’t slow down. From 2004 to 2011, the only year he wasn’t an All-Star was 2009, and won the AL MVP award twice (2005 and 2007). He also continued a streak of hitting at least 30 home runs in a season, which ended in 2011 at 14 straight seasons, having started in 1997. But he not only maintained his skill at the plate, but also in the field. Since it appears that he won’t play there again, Rodriguez will finish his career having played 1,193 games at third base and will hold a solid .965 fielding percentage. This is production in the field is nearly the same as his time at shortstop, having played 1,272 games at short and holding a .977 fielding percentage.
5. His statistics are Hall of Fame worthy
He’s a 14-time All-Star, three-time MVP, won two Gold Gloves, 10 Silver Sluggers, and led the American League in Wins Above Replacement five times. His career WAR is 117.9, which is good for the 16th best in baseball history. He also won the 2009 World Series with the Yankees, which, as general manager Brian Cashman said during his press conference, Rodriguez had a major part in. He batted .455 in the Division Series, .428 in the Championship Series and .250 in the World Series, driving in 18 runs in 15 games en route to the title. He has hit 696 career home runs, prior to his final game, which puts him 4th on the all-time list, and 2,084 RBI’s, which is the third most in baseball history. He is also a member of an elite club of hitters, those with 3,000 career hits, currently having 3,114 for his career. Alex Rodriguez has been one of the most polarizing figures in baseball, with some people loving him and others hating him, but his accomplishments cannot be denied. He is, statistically, one of the greatest baseball players of all-time and a true superstar of this generation of baseball.
All stats were found on his player profile at https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rodrial01.shtml
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