Alex Rodriguez isn’t going to hit the mother load of daily doubles today because the details of the richest deal in baseball history won’t be ironed out by the time Rodriguez is announced as the AL MVP this afternoon.
The Yankees, agent Scott Boras and MLB officials are moving toward finding a way for Rodriguez to share in the financial windfall the Yankees will experience as Rodriguez approaches Barry Bonds’ all-time home-run record in pinstripes. Because milestone bonuses are not allowed in player contracts, a revenue-sharing program has to be agreed on before the 10-year, $275 million deal becomes official. The contract easily could climb past the $300 million mark. Rodriguez, 32, has 518 homers; Bonds leads with 762.
Talking to MLB.com during the weekend, Rodriguez said the negotiations are “in the bottom of the fifth inning.”
Considering the short Thanksgiving work week it’s not out of question an official announcement won’t be made until early next week but the deal will get done. Mariano Rivera is expected to accept the Yankees’ three-year, $45 million offer with the decision being made today or tomorrow.
Rodriguez will be announced as the AL MVP winner for the second time in three years (third overall). He will participate in a conference call that will be dominated by Rodriguez’s contract and how the deal came together because he hasn’t spoken publicly of meeting with the Steinbrenner family this week in Tampa without Boras present.
Because Rodriguez officially will not be a Yankee while talking to the media there is a chance questions will be limited to his sensational season in which he batted .314 and led the majors with 54 homers and 156 RBIs.
If you listen long enough, Rodriguez sought the advice of everybody from Warren Buffett, to Goldman Sachs to John Lennon’s spirit in making his decision to go back to the Yankees after opting out late last month during the deciding Game 4 of the Red Sox-Rockies World Series.
“When the time is right and I have a proper forum. . . . I think it’s important for the Yankees fans, to realize exactly what happened, from A to Z,” said Rodriguez, who credits his face-to-face chat with Steinbrenner as the key ingredient and looks forward to being known as a New Yorker. “I think it’s the best way you can do things. I felt sometimes the messages can be mixed up and you may be getting some information that is not 100 percent accurate. I just took it upon myself to call Hank and talk to him one on one. Long after baseball, New York is going to be part of our lives. I have some unfinished business in New York.”
Though the Boras camp was impressed with Steinbrenner granting Rodriguez an audience after Steinbrenner said good riddance to Rodriguez when he opted out, the feelings could change following Steinbrenner’s quotes in Sunday’s Post.
“There were mistakes made by his agent,” Steinbrenner said. “We reached out to [Rodriguez] and then he didn’t call us back. Scott did mess up things.”
Boras has refused to discuss the process, waiting until the deal officially is done.