This is not necessarily shocking given his age and the state of his contract, which runs for this season and next, but Alex Rodriguez has made it official: he’s retiring after the 2017 season.
A-Rod has played 21 seasons in the bigs. He has a career line of .297/.382/.554 with 3,070 hits, 687 homers and 2,055 RBI. Those last two totals place him fourth on the all-time home run list, 75 homers behind Barry Bonds, and third on the all-time RBI list, 238 behind Hank Aaron.
The highs and lows of his career are well known, of course. He’s a three-time MVP Award winner and led the Yankees to the 2009 World Series title. He’s likewise one of baseball’s greatest pariahs due to his PED history which ultimately led to his suspension for the entire 2014 season. The latter will likely keep him out of the Hall of Fame when he’s eligible to be voted on. At least for several years or barring some fundamental change in the way in which the BBWAA approaches the cases of players who used PEDs. If not for all of that he’d be an obvious first ballot inductee. Indeed, it were not for all of that, he’d be widely considered one of the greatest to ever play the game.
For now we only get two more seasons to enjoy A-Rod. Or two more seasons to kick him around. It all depends on your point of view, I suppose.
