Short Of 700 Homers, Alex Rodriguez To Be Released Friday

Four home runs shy of 700, Alex Rodriguez said Sunday he’ll play his final game for the Yankees on Friday.

Rodriguez, reduced to a part-time DH in what will apparently be his final season, will take a job with the organization as a special advisor and instructor, the Yankees announced.

According to a press release, Rodriguez, 41, will sign a new contract to work with the club running through the 2017 season. He will report directly to owner Hal Steinbrenner.

“It’s both a happy and sad day,” Rodriguez told reporters. “I’m obviously disappointed but I’m also at peace with their decision.”

Rodriguez might not get a milestone home run, but will receive all the money left on the 10-year, $275 million contract he signed with the Yankees in 2007 after famously opting opt of his $252 million contract during Game 4 of the Red Sox-Rockies World Series. He is set to earn $21 million next season, as well as $6 million the remainder of this season. Terms of his new personal services contract with the Yankees were not disclosed, but general manager Brian Cashman told reporters it would not preclude Rodriguez from seeking a job with another club, since Rodriguez will be released following Friday’s game.

But Rodriguez told Ken Rosenthal, “Honestly, my horizon is pinstripes and Friday. It’s been such an emotional couple of days that I can’t really think beyond that right now.”

Cashman said Rodriguez will be paid in full in 2017 and that his salary will impact the team’s payroll. Rodriguez said his new contract will begin in spring training 2017 and that he will go home to Miami following Friday’s game.

Rodriguez’s release follows Mark Teixeira’s announcement Friday that he’ll retire after the season, as well as the trades of Carlos Beltran, Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman and Ivan Nova as the Yankees clearly look to rebuild a team that has fallen into mediocrity this season.

“This is what the organization wants right now,” Rodriguez told reporters. “Obviously, there’s a shift. There’s a youth movement.”

Rodriguez was drafted No. 1 overall in 1992 out of Miami’s Westminister Christian High School by the Mariners, although he tried to sway Seattle not to take him. He indicated that he wanted to go to the Dodgers at No. 2. The Mariners did not blink and took him at No. 1 overall.

Rodriguez achieved stardom in Seattle, but by 25 years old, he reached free agency and left the Mariners for the Rangers to sign the then-richest contract in baseball history, a 10-year, $252 million deal. After three monster seasons in Texas—he slashed a combined .305/.395/.615 with 156 homers—both sides sought a divorce as the Rangers were mediocre in Rodriguez’s stint.

After nearly being traded to the Red Sox for Manny Ramirez and Jon Lester before the players union balked, Rodriguez ultimately was sent to the Yankees in February 2014 for Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias.

Of course, any article about Rodriguez cannot be completed without mentioning his use of performance enhancing drugs and unprecedented MLB suspensions. He was suspended in August 2013 for his role in the Biogenesis PED affair, originally being hit with a 211-game penalty.

But he appealed the ruling and played the remainder of the 2013 season. The suspension was reduced to 162 games—he did not play the 2014 season—but Rodriguez returned in 2015 and hit 33 homers, his highest total since he hit 35 in 2008.

Rodriguez ended up suing MLB and the players union before ultimately dropping the suit before returning to the field in 2015.

Rodriguez’s counting stats are certifiably Hall of Fame numbers—3,114 hits, 696 homers—but he likely will never be feted in Cooperstown because of his admission of using PEDs.

Still, asked how he’d want to be remembered, Rodriguez said, “As someone who tripped and fell a lot, but hopefully someone who kept getting up.”