We can’t say that the Yankees’ 10-year, $275 million investment in Alex Rodriguez, now halfway finished, has been a complete bust. Not with 129 homers and an insanely good October of 2009 on A-Rod’s 2008-12 ledger.
What we can assert with confidence, more than ever after the piece of information we learned yesterday, is that contract should come with its own set of instructions: Handle with extreme care.
If A-Rod isn’t going to set the all-time record for home runs, then he might just establish the unofficial mark for required maintenance. The Yankees are constantly working overtime to manage the mistake — and yes, while not a complete bust, it’s an obvious mistake — they made five years ago.
The Post confirmed a report by CBSSports.com in which general manager Brian Cashman acknowledged that manager Joe Girardi, in the middle of a playoff game earlier this month, called up to request that Yankee Stadium public-address announcer Paul Olden introduce a pinch-hitter, but not the player being pinch-hit for: A-Rod. When Raul Ibanez pinch-hit for Rodriguez in Game 3 of the American League Division Series — before hitting a game-tying home run in the ninth inning — Rodriguez’s name was not mentioned, as is traditionally done when a pinch-hitter comes to the plate.
Rodriguez also was pinch-hit for in ALDS Game 4 and ALCS Game 1, the latter being the night A-Rod flirted via baseball with two women in the Stadium stands.
There’s irony there, of course, regardless of the precise timing: Though Girardi was working — perhaps overzealously — to soothe hard feelings over lifting his highest-paid player, Rodriguez had other matters on his mind.
This maneuver says as much about Girardi as it does about A-Rod. Girardi routinely goes overboard to protect his players, sometimes to the detriment of the greater cause. It’s one thing to look after your guys, but it’s another to not hold them accountable for their wrongdoings.
Rodriguez earned the hooks and benchings that Girardi — with whom he has mostly enjoyed a decent relationship — gave him. He hit right-handed pitchers poorly during the regular season, and his playoff at-bats against righties were hardly even competitive. Whether you approached Girardi’s decision statistically or viscerally, you couldn’t find great fault with it. And, by golly, when you leave the game for a pinch-hitter at a major league ballpark, you get your name announced in a negative context.
Rodriguez has endured worse. He would have dealt with being mentioned in such a context. Again, his mind might have been elsewhere, anyway.
That brings us back to the bigger picture: Five years and $161 million in, five years and $114 million to go on this albatross, with $6 million bonus payments coming if A-Rod hits enough homers to surpass the big names on the all-time chart. His durability is no longer an asset, his range on defense has faded and we will see whether he can climb back to respectability against right-handers. And just when you think he has grown up some, he produces tabloid gold like his in-game romancing.
A trade of A-Rod appears quite unlikely, and he’s not so terrible on the field that the Yankees are about to release him. Shoot, it’s worth pointing out that Chavez didn’t pick up a hit in the entire postseason and arguably fielded third base worse than Rodriguez would have. No, this marriage will keep going and going, a good bet to produce more headaches than homers moving forward.
There’s no phone call that Girardi can make to prevent that reality from getting out there. No need for Olden or anyone else to announce it. We can see it for ourselves.