Alex Rodriguez’s 2015 Comeback Season Begins with Unexpected Hope
April 5, 2015 · Jacob Shafer · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Not all spring training performances are created equal. Yes, exhibition stats don’t count, and they don’t matter once the games get started for real. But let’s be honest: Whatever Alex Rodriguez did (or didn’t do) in the Grapefruit League was going to be scrutinized.
At the plate, Rodriguez posted a .267/.377/.489 slash line with three home runs in 45 at-bats. More importantly, he kept his head down and said the right things, avoiding further controversy.
“I’ve said all along, I thought Alex was going to help us,” manager Joe Girardi said on Saturday, per NJ.com‘s Brendan Kuty. “But until you get into it, I mean, it’s two years since he’s played. I wasn’t 100 percent sure.”
How could he be? As everyone this side of the moons of Jupiter knows, A-Rod is coming back from a season-long performance-enhancing-drug suspension. He’s easily the most polarizing figure in baseball, and maybe in all of professional sports.
He’s also approaching his 40th birthday and hasn’t cracked 20 home runs or 130 games played in a season since 2010.
So the New York Yankees, who have to pay Rodriguez for the next three years regardless, had every reason to be pessimistic.
There’s still time for doom and gloom, but during the exhibition slate Rodriguez offered the Bombers a glimmer of hope. Forget the PEDs and public perception for a moment; a productive A-Rod would boost a Yankees lineup that’s littered with question marks.
Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com says it’s “likely” Rodriguez will begin the season as the everyday designated hitter, and he could also spell third baseman Chase Headley.
“You probably can’t play him as much as you used to,” Girardi told Wallace. “But I still think you can play him a lot.”
Can A-Rod carry his spring performance through the summer? The projection systems aren’t bullish:
None of those is a worst-case scenario, but none would move the needle much.
At the very least, A-Rod is likely to reach some milestones this season. With 654 career home runs, he’s six shy of Willie Mays for fourth place on the all-time list. And he needs just 61 hits to reach 3,000.
But the Yankees are hoping for more than headlines and symbolic moments as they try to break a two-year playoff drought, which counts as a mini-crisis in the Bronx.
“After my last two years, it means the world to be back in a major league stadium,” Rodriguez said on Saturday after playing in the Yankees’ final exhibition tune-up at Nationals Park, per ESPNNewYork‘s Andrew Marchand. “I can’t tell you how grateful I feel for the opportunity to be back playing baseball. I know it is my 21st year, but this is probably the one that I’m most grateful of.”
Here’s another interesting wrinkle: ESPN The Magazine recently polled 117 big league players and asked them, among other things, whether they were “happy to see Alex Rodriguez back.” The result: 41 percent said “yes,” 29 percent said “no” and 30 percent said “I don’t care,” which might be the most damning response (indifference, after all, is truly the opposite of love).
Fans in the nation’s capital aren’t so divided. They showered A-Rod with boos in each of his three at-bats on Saturday, and erupted after each of his three strikeouts.
“I’m almost numb to it,” Rodriguez said of the chilly response, per Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. Then he added, rather curiously, “Sometimes I just can’t figure out if it’s boos or cheers.”
This is the world we’re living in. Up is down. Boos are cheers. A-Rod is finished, long live A-Rod.
Buckle up; whichever direction it goes, this should be quite a ride.
All statistics current as of April 5 and courtesy of MLB.com.
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