After 22 seasons, 14 All-Star Games, 10 Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves and three MVPs, Alex Rodriguez will retire.
In a press conference on Sunday morning, Rodriguez announced his retirement from the game of baseball, which will go into effect this Friday. The Yankees will release him at that time. Going forward, Rodriguez will join the Yankees as a special assistant and instructor. According to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, the Yankees informed Rodriguez a few days ago that they wanted to release him. After some discussions, the team agreed to play him as designated hitter on Friday at home against the Rays to finish out his career. "Saying goodbye may be the hardest part of the job," Rodriguez told reporters. "But that's what I'm doing today." "We all want to keep playing forever. But it doesn't work that way." Rodriguez, 41, is one of baseball's most controversial figures. He has always been surrounded in a cloud of possible steroid use. Rodriguez allegedly tested positive for steroids in 2003 as a member of the Texas Rangers and was involved in the BALCO scandal. Though not suspended for that incident, Rodriguez's reputation as one of the league's best players was hurt. Then, in 2013, Rodriguez was suspended 211 games (the end of the 2013 season and the entire 2014 season) for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal with Anthony Bosch. Rodriguez reportedly admitted to using the steroids in November 2014. Performance-enhancing drugs aside, Rodriguez enjoyed one of the most celebrated careers in Major League Baseball history. He is a career .295/.380/.550 hitter with 696 home runs (fourth all-time) and 2,084 RBI. Rodriguez has been worth 113 fWAR over the course of his career, which ranks 13th all-time. Rodriguez was the first overall pick in the 1993 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners. Known as a baseball prodigy, Rodriguez was up in the Major Leagues the very next year, in 1994. He ended up playing seven seasons in Seattle before signing a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers, still the third-largest deal in MLB history. In 2003, after just a mere three years with Texas, the team decided they wanted to dump his contract and traded him to the Yankees, where he has been since. Rodriguez went on to sign another huge contract, a ten-year, $275 million extension (now baseball's second-largest contract) with the Yankees. This deal does not expire until after next season, but since the Yankees will be releasing Rodriguez, they still owe him the rest of his money. "To the other 29 clubs who want us to pay every penny, don't worry," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told Jayson Stark of ESPN. "We will be." The decision to release Rodriguez came during a time when the Yankees appear to be gravitating towards a youth movement. They traded Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova at the trade deadline, getting them tons of prospects. They're ridding themselves of their large payroll and are doing something that they have rarely done in the past: look to the future. Rodriguez does not fit the youth movement bill, and considering he was not producing in his current role, it made sense for the Yankees to decide to cut ties with him. In 2016, Rodriguez is hitting just .204/.252/.356 with nine home runs and 29 RBI over 234 plate appearances. He's been worth -1.1 fWAR and has found himself on the bench more than in the starting lineup. He'll likely fall short of 700 home runs, a milestone only ever done by three players: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. "It's disappointing. It would have been a lot of fun to give it a crack," Rodriguez told FOX Sports. "I think I could have done it. But there's no shame in falling 18 home runs short of Babe Ruth." It's hard to imagine Major League Baseball without Alex Rodriguez, as one of the league's most contentious players has decided to call it a career. Even if it wasn't completely on his own terms. --Devan Fink
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After 14 Major League seasons, New York Yankees’ first baseman Mark Teixeira has decided to hang up the cleats.
According to Buster Olney of ESPN.com, Teixeira will announce his retirement today and will go into effect at the end of the season. The Yankees announced a 3 p.m. eastern press conference with Teixeira but did not give a reason as to why. The 36-year-old Teixeira was initially drafted by the Texas Rangers in the first round of the 2001 MLB Draft. The fifth overall pick was selected out of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. It didn’t take long for Teixeira to earn a big league promotion, making the team out of Spring Training in 2003 and appearing in his first game as the designated hitter on April 1, 2003. Teixeira would go on to have a very successful season, hitting 26 home runs and driving in 84 with an .811 OPS. He finished fifth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Teixeira would go on to play four-and-a-half seasons with the team that initially drafted him, posting a slash line of .283/.368/.533 while there, being named to an All-Star team and winning two Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers each. In 2007, Teixeira was traded to the Braves in a deal that got the Rangers Elivs Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. He suited up for 157 games with Atlanta before being dealt to the Angels at the 2008 trade deadline. During the 2008-09 offseason, Teixeira became a free agent and cashed in. He signed an eight-year, $180 million contract with the Yankees, leading many to wonder if it was time for a salary cap in baseball. “At the rate the Yankees are going, I’m not sure anyone can compete with them,” Brewers owner Mark Attanasio told Bloomberg News in 2008. “Frankly, the sport might need a salary cap.” Teixeira went on to earn his money the very next season, hitting .292/.383/.565 with 39 home runs and 122 RBIs, both leading the American League en route to the Yankees’ World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Since, the Yankees have seen Teixeira decline, likely due to both age and injuries. He’s posted just a .239/.336/.463 slash line since 2009, averaging 23 home runs and 69 RBIs. Teixeira has battled injuries and has not played 150+ games since the 2011 season. In 2016, Teixeira is having the worst season of his career, hitting .198/.287/.340 with 10 home runs and 27 RBIs over 303 plate appearances. With that in mind, it only makes sense that the impending free agent has decided to call it a career. Cover Those Bases wishes Teixeira the best of luck in retirement. —Devan Fink
The Toronto Blue Jays spent most of trade deadline day shuffling around their starting rotation, but after the bell sounded is when their biggest deal leaked.
As first reported by Robert Murray of FanRag Sports, the Blue Jays and Pittsburgh Pirates have struck a deal. Toronto has acquired Francisco Liriano and two top prospects--catcher Reese McGuire and outfielder Harold Ramirez--in exchange for right-hander Drew Hutchinson. The 32-year-old Liriano had been one of the Pirates' best pitchers over the past three years, if not their best pitcher. But in 2016, he has struggled, allowing the Blue Jays to potentially buy him on the low in a free agent year. The Dominican Republic native has gone 6-11 this season with a 5.46 ERA over 21 starts, numbers that are not great. He has struck out 116 batters over 113 2/3 innings pitched, in line with his career averages but has walked 69, highest in the National League. He'll struggle in Toronto if he can't find his location in the hitter-friendly American League East, but at the same time, he could be a great add for them down the stretch. He has playoff experience and had a 3.26 ERA and a 2.54 K/BB ratio from 2012 to 2015. Liriano's current three-year, $39 million deal culminates at the end of 2016. Hutchinson, on the other hand, is another buy-low candidate for Pittsburgh. He is just 25 years old but has never quite broken out as a great starter in Toronto. This season, in particular, he's been hit around a bit in the Majors, allowing seven earned runs and four home runs while posting a 12-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 12 2/3 innings pitched. In Triple-A, he's pitched to a 3.26 ERA and a 110-35 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 102 innings. One positive to Hutchinson is that he is able to be controlled through the 2018 season. And if there is any team that can fix him up, it's the Pirates, who have been known to help many pitchers mechanically, including Liriano. --Devan Fink
The NL West is in an arms race.
Between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, so many pitchers have gone out west this trade season it's been hard to count. Right before the trade deadline on Monday, another pitcher went out there. The Giants have acquired left-hander Matt Moore from the Tampa Bay Rays, a source confirmed to Cover Those Bases on Monday. Joel Sherman of the New York Post first reported the trade. In exchange for Moore, the Rays got third baseman Matt Duffy as well as two minor league prospects: shortstop Lucius Fox and right-hander Michael Santos. The Giants have been in the market for starting pitching depth for awhile now. The back end of their rotation, specifically Matt Cain and Jake Peavy, has underperformed, leading San Francisco to look for someone outside the organization. Moore, 27, is just that. He's 7-7 this season with a 4.08 ERA and a 109-40 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 130 innings pitched this season for the Rays. This is his first full season since having to have Tommy John surgery in 2014. While Moore's stats do not pop off the page, he has plenty of pluses to his profile that made him appealing for many teams. Moore's contract status is great for a team. He has team options for the next three seasons valued at $7 million, $9 million and $10 million, respectively. This is much less than what he would likely receive on the open market, especially considering his age. This is why San Francisco had to give so much up. One player, Matt Duffy, 25, is a great buy-low candidate for Tampa Bay. Not a free agent until after the 2020 season, Duffy is hitting for a below-average .253/.313/.358 line with four home runs and 21 RBI over 286 plate appearances this season. He also spent time on the disabled list. But just last year, Duffy had a .762 OPS over 612 plate appearances, while also being a great defensive third baseman. He could be good in Tampa Bay at second base, as Evan Longoria is currently manning the hot corner there. As for Fox and Santos, they both are still far away from the Major Leagues. Fox was a highly regarded international prospect who could turn it around in the Rays' system going forward. --Devan Fink
The Chicago Cubs added a bullpen piece in a trade on Monday.
They have acquired right-handed reliever Joe Smith from the Angels, as Buster Olney of ESPN reports. In exchange for Smith, the Angels received minor league right-hander Jesus Castillo. Smith is a good add for the Cubs, who already took a huge step forward in terms of bullpen depth earlier in the trade season when they acquired Aroldis Chapman from the Yankees. Anyhow, Smith still adds to a team that ranks 21st in bullpen WAR. The 32-year-old Smith is 1-4 with a 3.82 ERA and a 25-13 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 37 2/3 innings pitched this season. He is a free agent at the end of the year and did not cost Chicago a lot. It is possible that Smith will serve in the seventh inning role going forward, with Hector Rondon pitching the eighth. --Devan Fink |
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