Can it get any worse for Alex Rodriguez these days?
He hasn’t played yet this season after hip surgery, Yankees Nation has basically given up on him and, oh yeah, he’s a central figure in a performance-enhancing drug scandal currently being investigated by Major League Baseball, according to T.J. Quinn, Pedro Gomez and Mike Fish of ESPN.com.
The trio of ESPN reporters reported on Tuesday:
“Major League Baseball will seek to suspend about 20 players connected to the Miami-area clinic at the heart of an ongoing performance-enhancing drug scandal, including Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, possibly within the next few weeks, ‘Outside the Lines’ has learned.
“Tony Bosch, founder of the now-shuttered Biogenesis of America, reached an agreement this week to cooperate with MLB‘s investigation, two sources told ‘Outside the Lines,’ giving MLB the ammunition officials believe they need to suspend the players.”
Quinn also added this:
Rodriguez, who has already admitted to taking PEDs from 2001 to 2003 when he was with the Texas Rangers, would be dealt a severe blow if forced to sit out for 100 games at this juncture in his career.
Rodriguez’s play on the field has already started to slow in his late 30s. He hit .272 with 18 home runs and 57 RBI in 2012. That was after hitting .276 with 16 home runs and 62 RBI in 2011. If you believe in WAR (wins above replacement), Rodriguez ranked 15th out of 19 qualifying third baseman last year, via ESPN.com.
He’s a shadow of a 14-time All-Star and, newsflash, he’s only going to continue to decline as he ages.
Alex Rodriguez’s WAR, 2008-13 (via ESPN.com)
| Year | WAR |
| 2008 | 6.5 |
| 2009 | 3.9 |
| 2010 | 3.9 |
| 2011 | 3.7 |
| 2012 | 2.0 |
Meanwhile, the Yankees are 2.5 games behind the rival Boston Red Sox in the AL East. They rank 11th in the American League in runs scored. The 2009 championship season seems oh so far away.
This has all the makings of a former revered slugger silently fading into obscurity on the baseball diamond. Going out with a bang is out of the question now, unless you count the PED investigation.
While Rodriguez’s life off the field becomes more complicated, his life on the field becomes more clear. That is, his demise is as much of a sure thing as Father Time.
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