Three times over the past 25 years, the New York Yankees have spun a trade for one of the best young hitters on the planet, made available by his former team in order to dump his salary, despite the fact that their team captain played the same position. Most recently, it was Juan Soto, acquired for one magical season from the San Diego Padres prior to the 2024 season. Before that, it was Giancarlo Stanton, brought in to give the Yankees arguably the two best power hitters in the game in 2018. But the original version of this story took place 22 years ago this past February, when the Bronx Bombers — in desperate need of a third baseman after the incumbent, Aaron Boone, was injured playing basketball in the offseason — reeled in arguably the best player in the game of baseball, Alex Rodriguez.
Now nearly a decade since he last stepped in the batter’s box at Yankee Stadium, the legacy of A-Rod continues to spark debate, as fans question whether the otherworldly performance in his prime was worth the controversy of his decline.
Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez
Born: July 27, 1975 (New York, NY)
Yankees Tenure: 2004-16
Born in Washington Heights and raised in the Dominican Republic and Miami, Rodriguez put himself on the map at Christopher Columbus High School (freshman year) and Westminster Christian School (sophomore, junior, and senior years), playing shortstop for the baseball team and both wide receiver and quarterback for the football team. While it was his prowess on the diamond that would earn him international acclaim and numerous accolades — he played for Team USA in the 1992 World Junior Championship — his performance on the gridiron was so impressive that, when the University of Miami offered A-Rod a baseball scholarship, the football team stepped in with the goal of turning him into a two-sport athlete.
Unfortunately for Miami, however, the Seattle Mariners had other ideas, selecting A-Rod as the first overall pick of the 1993 MLB Draft. That would prove to be the right decision, as just thirteen months later, Rodriguez made his Major League debut against the Boston Red Sox — the first player to debut at the age of 18 in fifteen years. While he was unspectacular in his first cup of coffee that year, or in his limited time on the roster during the strike-shortened 1995 season, he had done just enough to be penciled in as the starting shortstop to start the 1996 season. And that year, he began to craft the legend of A-Rod. In a lineup that featured future Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez, the 20-year-old Rodriguez was arguably the best player on the team, posting an absurd .358/.414/.631 slash line to become the third youngest player to win the batting title in AL history (and on top of that, he hit 36 home runs, too!).
Rodriguez spent the next four seasons on the Mariners, over which span he posted a .304/.372/.560 slash line, hit 148 home runs, won three silver sluggers, went to three Midsummer Classics, and joined the 40/40 club. Despite his performance, and despite having a stacked lineup, Seattle failed to even reach .500 in two of those seasons, and would lose to the Yankees in the 2000 ALCS.
During the 2000-2001 offseason, everyone assumed that Rodriguez would return to New York and sign with his childhood team, the Mets. But a host of demands from agent Scott Boras spooked Mets general manager Steve Phillips, who feared that Rodriguez’s presence would turn the club into a 24-player team, that also had A-Rod. And so, instead, the superstar shortstop inked a record-breaking, 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers, a deal that doubled the previous record for the largest contract in American sports, Kevin Garnett’s $126 million deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
To this day the contract ranks 19th in Major League history according to Baseball-Reference (and that’s without adjusting for inflation!).
For his part, Rodriguez certainly held up his end of the bargain for Texas. From 2001 to 2003, he slashed .305/.396/.615, hit 156 home runs, went to three All-Star Games, received two Gold Gloves and three Silver Sluggers, and won the 2003 AL MVP despite playing on a last-place team. Even so, the Rangers struggled to put a team around him, and after three seasons, decided that investing a full quarter of the payroll in one player wasn’t good roster-building. Immediately after the 2003 World Series, they put him on the trade block, spinning a deal with the Red Sox that the MLBPA ultimately vetoed because it would set the precedent that players could return guaranteed money. Once that deal fell through, the Yankees — suddenly in need of a third baseman, and upon learning that A-Rod was willing to switch positions — swooped in and acquired him, sending a package headlined by Alfonso Soriano the other way.
The baseball world, to say the least, was shocked.
Despite a 2004 postseason that we will ignore in all aspects, Rodriguez proved immediately why the Yankees made the right decision trading for him. Over his first four seasons in the Bronx, he posted a .303/.403/.573 slash line, blasted 173 home runs, went to four All-Star games, won two AL MVPs, and accrued an absurd 30.9 rWAR. He piled on highlight after highlight, hitting three homers and driving in ten runs in one night, recording his 2000th career hit and 500th career homer (becoming the youngest player to do the latter), and walking it off twice early in 2007. Nonetheless, cracks began to appear in the foundation, as the player whose contract was so famous that Night at the Museum would make a joke about it, earned himself a reputation as a postseason choker, as he had just seven hits in 54 plate appearances across 13 postseason games after 2004.
All of that would pale, however, in comparison to the two major controversies about to hit A-Rod, both of his own creation. On October 28, 2007, during Game 4 of the World Series, Boras announced that Rodriguez had opted out of his deal and would become a free agent. The announcement angered literally everyone, from the league that felt A-Rod was trying to upstage the World Series, to the Yankees who felt betrayed after Rodriguez had spent the year telling them he intended not to opt out, to (allegedly) A-Rod himself, who to this day blames Boras for acting contrary to his wishes (for what it’s worth, the Rodriguez/Boras relationship fell apart after this — perhaps some evidence that he’s telling the truth). At the end of the day, though, Mariano Rivera patched things up between Rodriguez and the Yankees, helping bring the two sides together on a new 10-year, $275 million deal that would keep him in pinstripes for the rest of his career.
Had that been the end of the controversy, we would look back at it as just a weird quirk in a career full of them. In February 2009, however, Sports Illustrated released a report identifying A-Rod as one of the 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, news that shook the baseball world and, indeed, even the nation — recently-elected President Obama even commented on it! For his part, Rodriguez owned up to the mistake, acknowledging that, although it was a different era, he was “stupid” and “naïve.” Perhaps, again, if this was the end of the controversy, he could have rehabilitated his reputation, gotten his number retired by the Yankees, and ended up in Cooperstown — especially since the 2009 season saw Rodriguez finally shake the “postseason choker” reputation, as he went 19-for-52 with six home runs and 12 walks, including a massive two-run homer in Game 3 of the World Series and a game-winning double in Game 4.
Things began to crumble around Rodriguez following the 2009 season, even as he passed the 600-homer threshold. While he was still a good hitter, injuries began to sap his power at the plate and his range at the hot corner, and limited him to just 137 games in 2010, 99 in 2011, and 122 in 2012. Joe Girardi famously benched him in favor of Raúl Ibáñez and Eric Chavez at critical moments in the intense ALDS matchup with the Baltimore Orioles. Then, as the Yankees were swept by the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS, he was spotted flirting with fans during the game.
Somehow, it got even worse. That December, it was revealed that Rodriguez needed hip surgery that would sideline him for the first half of the 2013 season — prompting the Yankees to acquire former Red Sox first baseman/third baseman Kevin Youkilis, which to this day feels like a crime against The Rivalry. Days afterwards, the Biogenesis scandal broke, and Rodriguez began to pick fights with literally everybody, including the players’ union and the Yankees organization.
Despite the threat of legal action against his own ballclub, though, and appealing a 211-game suspension, A-Rod returned to the Yankees lineup on August 5, 2013, giving a sluggish Yankees lineup a jolt and crafting some memorable moments — such as the time Girardi melted down at the umpire for refusing to eject Ryan Dempster, only to see Rodriguez get his vengeance later in the game.
Following the 2013 season, Rodriguez went off onto his year-long sabbatical, during which time Rodriguez went and enrolled in classes at Miami, and for most of us, that was that. I mean, how often does a 39-year-old infielder with a bad hip return to the Majors after missing an entire season? The answer, as it turns out, is exactly once. Rodriguez turned back the clock a little bit in 2015, blasting 33 homers, joining the 3,000 Hit Club, and putting together his best season since 2009 as the Yankees’ full-time designated hitter.
Unfortunately, Father Time came for Rodriguez the following season. The team worked with the struggling 41-year-old on as soft a midseason departure as one could’ve likely hoped given the circumstances. They announced his forthcoming departure a week in advance, honored him in a pregame ceremony before his final game on August 12th, and he got a double against the Rays for his final career hit. He played third base in the ninth one last time, and walked off the field to a very nice hand. The Yankees then designated him for assignment and promoted one of their prospects, outfielder Aaron Judge. Good move.
Since his retirement, Rodriguez has stayed in the game of baseball, most often serving as an analyst for ESPN and Fox — mixing in the occasional nugget with some bizarresoundbites. While his No. 13 remains in circulation, and he has yet to receive even a plaque in Monument Park, A-Rod’s apology tour has arguably been his greatest achievement: in fact, I know multiple Red Sox fans who have told me that they hate how much they enjoy A-Rod these days. And that is, itself, a pretty cool legacy.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
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