Your true colors are showing, A-Rod.
New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez slipped up during the live broadcast from Kauffman Stadium following Game 2 of the World Series, saying Yankees instead of Mets.
The panel’s reaction may have been the best part—most notably Pete Rose’s facial expression.
[Twitter]
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The New York Yankees losing a one-and-done Wild Card Game at home to the Houston Astros on Tuesday night provided another harsh reminder to fans of the famous franchise: These are not your Yankees of old.
Derek Jeter was not coming to save the Yankees this time around. Johnny Damon wasn’t picking up a clutch base hit. Nick Swisher could not provide an emotional boost with his energetic attitude. Jorge Posada was but a spectator.
The Yankees instead had Carlos Beltran coming up empty in three of four at-bats. Catcher Brian McCann went hitless in four plate appearances. In total, three members of the Yankees reached base via hits. That, unfortunately for the Yankees, matched the amount of runs the Astros scored en route to notching the 3-0 victory.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi, per ESPN, spoke about the state of his roster following the loss to the Astros:
“Physically it’s not a very healthy group in there right now at the end of the season. Guys are beat up,” Girardi said. “But they never stopped playing. They never stopped playing hard.”
Girardi wasn’t wrong in pointing out that he did not have the lineup of his choice when the Yankees hosted the Astros. Among the Yankees players who were sidelined on Tuesday was first baseman and slugger Mark Teixeira. Teixeira has been inactive since fouling a ball off of his shin in the middle of August.
Also missing was designated hitter Alex Rodriguez, even though Rodriguez was in the lineup. A-Rod went hitless in four at-bats. He was twice downed on strikes. In all, Rodriguez saw a total of 10 pitches.
Maybe the biggest takeaway from the Yankees’ loss to the Astros is that the result erased a spectacular season had by Rodriguez. Little had been expected of A-Rod among fans of the Yankees back in the spring. The often-criticized A-Rod was a revelation in his return to the Yankees, launching 33 home runs and accumulating 86 RBI throughout the 2015 regular season.
ESPN Staff Writer Wallace Matthews wrote about how Rodriguez could have been a hero for the Yankees against the Astros. Rodriguez stepped up to the plate in the sixth inning. Two runners were on, and the Yankees were trailing by a pair of runs. Astros ace Dallas Keuchel, pitching on three days’ rest, was on the hill. The stage was set for A-Rod:
Only this was not the Rodriguez of 2007, or even the Rodriguez of, say, Aug. 1, 2015. This was a 40-year-old player coming off 19 months of idleness, who had played 151 regular-season games, more than he had since 2007, and his moment in the spotlight lasted all of one pitch. Even though it was the pitch he thought he wanted, a waist-high cutter, Rodriguez could do nothing more than loop it harmlessly to centerfield, where Carlos Gomez was waiting to tuck it — and the Yankees’ hope of pushing their season further into October — into his glove for the final out.
Keuchel, not Rodriguez and not anybody else wearing Yankees pinstripes, was dominant on Tuesday. While Masahiro Tanaka gave up two earned runs off of two solo round-trippers, Keuchel struck out seven batters in six full innings of work. The Yankees then failed to register a single hit off of three Houston relievers, a final whimper from the New York lineup that had run out of steam.
Rodriguez spoke to reporters, Matthews included, about the 2015 campaign following the loss to the Astros:
I mean, it’s hard to kind of reflect on the year right now, but it’s been an incredibly fun year overall. I played a lot of games and that’s probably the biggest surprise of the whole year. Just had a lot of fun playing with the guys and just feel grateful for the opportunity to come back and re-establish myself as a major league baseball player.
How much fun Rodriguez has left in the tank is a great unknown heading into the offseason. Rodriguez turned 40 years old this past July. He is, per Major League Baseball rules, clean as far as the public knows. The body of every great athlete, even that belonging to A-Rod, eventually breaks down.
It is possible that Rodriguez has made his last great contributions to the Yankees as a player. He may not be alone on that list.
The previously mentioned Teixeira could be on his way out of New York before next spring. Greg Bird is ready to take his rightful spot in the Yankees lineup at first base. A team looking for a veteran right-handed bat could make the Yankees an offer, one that would likely include the Yankees eating some of Teixeira’s pricey contract. Teixeira is, according to Spotrac, owed over $46.2 million between now and the end of the 2016 season.
The perception is that the Yankees will swiftly and easily rebuild the roster via free agency. That’s what the Yankees do, after all. These Yankees are not the Yankees from a decade ago or even from 2009. These Yankees may not be willing to hand left-handed ace David Price a blank check. Zack Greinke will be looking to lock down the final massive contract of his playing career. Bryce Harper isn’t joining the Yankees in 2016. Neither is Mike Trout.
It should not be ignored that the Yankees have young talent. Didi Gregorius, as explained by Roger Rubin of Newsday, has thus far been a solid replacement for the retired Jeter. Bird seems ready for the big show years ahead of schedule. Twenty-one-year old starter Luis Severino went 5-3 in 11 starts.
Fans of the Yankees are going to be asked to embrace patience. The Yankees of old got old. “Buying” a World Series is not an option this time around. The foundation of a championship team exists in the Bronx. A new era for the Yankees will soon arrive.
What’s painful for fans of the Yankees is that the old era must first die before the new era begins.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
We made it. The end is here, and all that remains is the ever-entertaining postseason that never disappoints with its drama and intrigue.
Major League Baseball’s marathon season comes to an end Sunday. It has given us plenty of feel-good, fluffy stories as well as its fair share of controversy and ugliness. And both types were present right up until the end—the Minnesota Twins were the nice storyline, and Jonathan Papelbon gave us the despicable.
With a couple of days until the official postseason starts on Tuesday, most of the talk will be looking forward into October and how the rest of the month might play out. For now, tough, it is time to take a look back at the regular season’s biggest storylines.
Not all of them will make it, but the ones you’re about to read are all significant and helped shape the last six months. So, before we get into the best part of the baseball season, here are the events and happenings that got us here.
New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez moved past Craig Biggio into sole possession of 21st place on the all-time hits list with a solo home run off of Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Jake Odorizzi in the first inning of Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Rays, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Sitting at 3,060 career hits before the game, Rodriguez used the 686th home run (and 3,061st hit) of his career to vault ahead of Biggio on the all-time hits list.
A-Rod got a 1-0 fastball from Odorizzi that caught too much of the plate, and he promptly deposited it in the right field stands at Tropicana Field for his team-high 32nd homer of the year.
Rodriguez didn’t have any other hits in the game, but he did later draw a walk and come around to score.
He already has six homers and 12 RBI through just 13 games in September. That follows a dreadful month of August in which he posted a .153 batting average, .273 on-base percentage, two home runs and 10 RBI.
The ugly slump led some to question whether the 40-year-old’s excellent first half might have just been a fluke. But it now seems quite clear that Rodriguez’s surprising bounce-back season is the real deal, as Tuesday’s effort boosted his batting line to .257/.360/.506.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has been diagnosed with a bone bruise in his left knee after undergoing an MRI on Tuesday.
Continue for updates.
Rodriguez, 40, suffered the injury in Sunday’s 5-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, per George A. King III of the New York Post. He was in the lineup again Monday after the team traveled to Tampa Bay, knocking in a game-tying RBI as the Yankees pulled off a ninth-inning comeback against the Rays. New York listed him as the designated hitter for Tuesday night.
While still one of the most controversial players in the sport, Rodriguez has been a revelation for the Yankees in 2015. He’s hitting .257/.359/.501 with 31 home runs and 82 RBI heading into Tuesday night—both numbers at or near the team lead. The former All-Star has also kept a low-profile demeanor for most of the season, something he and the Yankees needed after a whirlwind 2014.
The former MVP missed the entire 2014 regular season because of a performance-enhancing drug suspension. He was limited to just 44 games in the two seasons prior to 2015 because of the suspension and a degenerative hip condition.
Once viewed among the best players in baseball history, Rodriguez’s injury issues and actions off the field had turned him into a pariah throughout the sport—even in his own clubhouse.
Now, the Yankees clubhouse likely realizes how much it needs him. With Mark Teixeira out for the remainder of the season, Rodriguez is arguably New York’s most dangerous hitter. If you told fans that at the beginning of the season, they’d most likely be envisioning a doomsday scenario.
With A-Rod at the center of a team in contention for a division crown, however, their fingers are crossed that this injury doesn’t linger.
Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
NEW YORK — The ceremony will be simple, the New York Yankees say.
Nothing elaborate. No special guests. Just a nice little acknowledgement of what Alex Rodriguez did by reaching 3,000 hits.
Simple…as if anything with Rodriguez can ever be simple.
Just like what the Yankees did after Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit, except with A-Rod, nothing can be just like Jeter.
Look, this shouldn’t even be a big story. A guy gets 3,000 hits, and his team honors him. Except in this case, the guy is Alex Rodriguez, and the team is the one he was working on suing this time last year.
And now the Yankees are going to honor him? Well, as a matter of fact, yes, they are.
Not grudgingly, either.
“I think it’s a wonderful gesture, what the club is doing,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Friday. “And I look forward to it.”
The ceremony will take place Sunday, before the Yankees game against the Toronto Blue Jays, a mere 86 days after A-Rod got to 3,000 with a June 19 home run off Detroit‘s Justin Verlander. The Yankees say the gap was a matter of scheduling, and Rodriguez seems too pleased that it’s happening to be concerned about why it’s happening now.
“I think it’s amazing, truly classy by the Steinbrenners and the Yankees organization,” he said last month, per George A. King III of the New York Post, when the date was announced.
Does he really believe that? This is A-Rod, so you never know for sure. But in this case, it seems like he does.
This ceremony could celebrate the dramatic turnaround in the relationship between the Yankees and the player they so often wished would just go away. It wouldn’t be right to say A-Rod is now a beloved star, or even that everyone in the organization likes him, but he has traveled the road from hated to tolerated and now all the way to accepted.
“He’s been great in the clubhouse, and great on the field,” said general manager Brian Cashman, who in other times wasn’t shy about making his negative A-Rod feelings known. “Everything’s been perfect.”
In the past, even the smallest A-Rod issue could become a huge controversy. This year, even the big issues became small. For all the talk about how the dispute over the home run milestone bonuses in Rodriguez’s contract could get ugly, the two sides ended up settling amicably, compromising on the amount of money and agreeing to donate it to charity.
That decision, announced July 3, came right when the Yankees had worked to get the ball back from the 3,000th hit. It was at that point, team officials say, the thaw in relations became real and Sunday’s ceremony became possible.
It’s real enough now that there’s no reason to think this ceremony will be a one-off occasion. Assuming there are no controversies to come (never a totally safe assumption with A-Rod), the Yankees say they’d be open to honoring Rodriguez again for future accomplishments.
None of this would have happened, of course, if Rodriguez weren’t having the season he has had. For one thing, there probably wouldn’t have been a 3,000th hit to celebrate. A season that began with him batting seventh on Opening Day (and not guaranteed an everyday lineup spot) is ending with him batting third or fifth on most nights for a team headed for the playoffs.
He hit his 30th home run of the season this past Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles. While it gave A-Rod 15 seasons with 30 or more, tying Hank Aaron’s major league record, it was the first time since 2010 he had hit that many.
He has 684 career home runs, and while the steroid cloud will never completely leave him alone, it’s once again possible to discuss his accomplishments without immediately mentioning his failures.
“Life moves on,” Cashman said. “Somebody once told me it’ll all be OK in the end, and if it’s not OK, it’s not the end.”
For A-Rod and the Yankees, it’s not the end. For now, though, as Sunday’s ceremony proves, it is all OK.
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Alex Rodriguez padded his record for most grand slams in MLB history Tuesday night when he crushed the ball just right of center field for a go-ahead blast.
It was the 25th grand slam of his career and gave the New York Yankees a 5-4 lead over the Minnesota Twins in the seventh inning of an 8-4 win. Rodriguez is now two grand slams ahead of Lou Gehrig, who ranks second all-time with 23.
And in case you missed it, #BAEROD is now definitely a thing:
[MLB]
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
It’s been a comeback year for the ages for Alex Rodriguez, who made his highly-publicized return to the Bronx after a year-long PED suspension. But the 40-year-old isn’t the only breakout star getting attention in 2015. Outfielder Bryce Harper currently leads the National League with 29 home runs this season.
Which superstar is having a better comeback season?
Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller joins Stephen Nelson to break it all down in the video above.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
For so many, Alex Rodriguez is providing something close to their worst-case scenario.
There is zero doubt many fans, media members and even those within Major League Baseball—uniformed or not—wanted A-Rod to fall flat on his face in 2015, to resemble the broken-down, washed-up player he was in 2012 and 2013. Only worse.
Ideally for those people irate at the performance-enhancing-drug scandals he has been named in, Rodriguez would have come off his yearlong suspension handed down by former commissioner Bud Selig and been a disaster for the New York Yankees. That would have appeased the masses.
Except A-Rod isn’t playing along. Instead, he’s doing all that his soon-to-be-40-year-old body is capable of to turn back the clock to his glory days. The effort continued Friday night when Rodriguez thumped a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning to push the Yankees to a 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners at Yankee Stadium.
That home run was Rodriguez’s 19th of the season, the most he’s had in a year since 2010 when he hit 30 and drove in 125. And aside from being an all-around offensive producer for the Bombers, he has also contributed with the timeliness of his hits.
He has three home runs in his last four games and has had hits in each of those four that gave the Yankees a lead.
Entering Friday’s game, A-Rod had hit two of his homers in high-leverage situations and had a .969 OPS in 34 plate appearances. Those numbers went up Friday, again putting him front and center in the Comeback Player of the Year discussion. Sportswriter Katie Sharp noted this stat:
A-Rod is the only Yankee this season to hit 2 go-ahead homers in the 7th inning or later (also May 1 vs Red Sox)
— Katie Sharp (@ktsharp) July 18, 2015
There are logical reasons for Rodriguez’s uptick since the last time we saw him in uniform. He is healthy, first and foremost. His hips are as mobile and pain-free as they can be at this point in his career, and that is allowing him to get to balls he was unable to in 2013 when his strikeout rate was nearly 24 percent, the highest it had been since his rookie season with the Mariners in 1995.
Considering Rodriguez is one of the greatest offensive players the sport has ever seen—doped up or not—you had to figure he had not forgotten how to hit an inside fastball. His body just wasn’t letting him. It was a case of health.
Where many believed, understandably, that at his age the imposed year off due to his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal would be too difficult to come back from, it ended up being a very long and beneficial rehab process.
“I think for me the time off benefited me, and I feel good, healthy, ready to go,” Rodriguez said, via Bob Nightengale of USA Today, during spring training. “It was the first time I had a chance to rest a full year in my career, and get a chance to train, versus rehab, so feeling good.”
With health now on his side, Rodriguez is producing at an elite level, making his exclusion from the American League All-Star roster ridiculous but predictable given his past transgressions and the disdain from a certain faction of his peers.
Rodriguez came out of the All-Star break with the seventh-highest wRC+ (148) in the league, according to FanGraphs. He also had a 147 adjusted OPS, which would be his highest mark since 2008 when it was 150 and he led the league with a .573 slugging percentage.
This current resurgence also makes it reasonable to expect Rodriguez to keep this up beyond this year.
That would be a massive boost for the Yankees, a team that had to wonder whether Rodriguez’s sliding production and negative PR was worth keeping around at $61 million over the final three years of his contract (they’re on the hook for $40 million after this season). They pretty much neglected to promote his passing of Willie Mays on the all-time home run list, as well as his 3,000th hit this year.
But they cannot deny his worth at a time when the franchise no longer dominates the AL East like it did a decade ago. Rodriguez is one of the best players on the roster, and the way he has performed makes it realistic that he can be one of the league’s best designated hitters for the duration of his contract.
Rodriguez turns 40 in 10 days. That is an age when hitters who rely on power should morph into empty shells of their past selves. A-Rod seemed headed for that fate a couple of seasons ago.
Now, however, he is defying natural decline, and we can assume he is doing it clean, as it would surprise exactly nobody if it ever came out that Rodriguez was the most tested player in the game. Maybe he backslides in 2016 and looks every bit of his age in 2017.
But as of now, one of the best players the sport has ever witnessed is showing why that moniker is real. He has not forgotten how to hit. And the Yankees need every last drop of whatever he has left for as long as he can give it to them.
All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Alex Rodriguez wasn’t given a spot in the All-Star Game, but that hasn’t stopped the New York Yankees star from being generous.
After launching his 17th home run of the year off Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz on Friday, the 39-year-old slugger made a young fan’s day by giving him his batting gloves.
[MLB]
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com