It’s not going to happen.
I should really just end it here, but allow me to justify this statement. This rumor about a Yankee trade with the Marlins is just not happening. It starts with the awful contract. It wouldn’t be the first time in baseball history, or even the first time this year that a bad baseball contract was traded away, but Alex Rodriguez‘ contract would be the worst of them all. There’s $114 million left on the contract plus $30m in bonus incentives, all for a player between the ages of 37 to 41.
Value-wise, Arod has averaged a 4.18 fWAR over the first 5 years of his current contract. If he miraculously defeats the recent spiraling trends and puts up the same fWAR for the remainder of his essentially $144 million contract, he’ll be earning $6.9 million per win above replacement. There’s only one team in baseball that can afford that type of contract, and that’s the team he’s currently on. So the idea of an organization like the small market Marlins taking on even half his contract is ridiculous when you consider that they’ll still be dishing out an optimistic $3.5 million per win above replacement.
Of course, no one ever accused the Marlins of spending wisely, so let’s assume they are ready to take on the money. Now we have to get around Rodriguez’ no-trade clause. Despite the booing and the lack of play, the third baseman emphatically stated yesterday, “I love the Yankees, I love this organization.”
Miami might be one of the few places he would want to play, but Rodriguez has been in New York for 9 years now, and his relationship with most of the young players appears to be extremely strong. As much as Derek Jeter is the captain of the Yankees, Rodriguez always appears to be the one reaching out to young players. You could argue that players like Robinson Cano wouldn’t be the players they are today without the direction of the 37 year old. With that, there is likely a large degree of attachment to his teammates, and assuming he’d leave for a new organization like the Marlins in far from a given.
Then there’s the issue of who the Yankees would fill in at third base. We know that Eric Chavez cannot play a full year on the field, nor does he want to, so the obvious in-house option is Eduardo Nunez. But Nunez is inferior to Arod both offensively and defensively. Going through the farm system, Brandon Laird is gone, so I don’t know what to suggest. Maybe David Adams and his 37 games at third base? You can’t rely on anything in the organization, so we’re probably looking at a free agent or trade scenario. But again we hit a snag because there’s very little on the open market, just Kevin Youkilis and that’s it.
Finally, the trade market might actually be interesting , and it’s possible that guys like Chase Headley and David Wright are available, but the prices are likely enormous on both. With a 2014 budget to meet, now is the time to deal with your prospects most wisely, and trading the farm for a player you don’t need to replace is not ideal. Considering the salary and the prospect value they’ll be giving away, are either a big enough upgrade over Alex Rodriguez? If you’re optimistic, perhaps, but with Wright’s injury history and Headley’s inconsistent career offensive numbers, I’m not sold.
It comes down to the fact that even if they can find an organization crazy enough to take just half his contract, the Yankees will be losing more value than they can reasonably find. If this team trades him, it would seem that it’s purely out of spite.
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10 Responses to On Trading Alex Rodriguez
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TIQ IQ
This post is based off of the premise that the team Arod is traded to would take on any significant amount for him, which is nuts. It would either be the Yankees paying a huge portion of the $114 million still owed to Arod over the next 5 years, or taking back bad contracts from the other party to a potential deal with the Yankees covering the difference.
I think there are two likely destinations for Arod, one being the Marlins because he lives/ is from there and would probably waive his no trade clause to go. The Yankees could take Heath Bell (2 years at $18 million total/ 3rd year club option that would be declined) and/ or Mark Buehrle ($48 million over the next three years) and sent Arod and whatever the difference is in salaries.
Another possibility, however pretty remote I think, would be a deal to the Dodgers for Carl Crawford. I tend to think Arod would waive his no trade clause to go there as well but who knows. Over the next 5 years, Crawford is owed about $103 million I believe, basically a wash with the Yankees picking up the difference.
Either way, there is absolutely no way the Yankees do not bear the brunt financially on any potential Arod deal one way or the other. I do not think anyone in their right minds would expect any other teams to give more than $10 million to the Yankees for him.
“Another possibility, however pretty remote I think, would be a deal to the Dodgers for Carl Crawford.”
The Red Sox inserted language into Crawford’s contract forbidding it being traded to the Yankees for the duration of the contract. Some have questioned whether it is enforceable, but as the contract was approved by the Commissioner’s office, I would tend to think that it is. After all, if player NTC’s are enforceable why shouldn’t team NTC’s be the same?
My other point is that LAD may be looking for a 3B, but they (like the Marlins) are an NL team lacking the DH. It would seem to me that an NL team would be absolutely crazy to expect a 42 year old A-Rod to play the field.
I take Bonafacio and his speed for a-rod in 5 minutes.There’s your new yankee 3rd baseman right there :D
Two amigos
Neither show emotion
In interviews
One plays for
The almighty dollar
The other for the game
Two amigos
I think it’s disgusting that A-rod is being blamed for this team wide shut down of offense. Everybody needs to be held accountable, not just A-rod, whom hasn’t even played half of these games. Something deeper is obviously going on here. Knock Knock Girardi, Chavez has NO hits this post season.
Sooner or later something has to be done. Jeter will resign in 2014 for at least 2 more years and both players will become full time DHers before too long. Getting rid of Arod now makes a lot of sense as he’ll probably be worth less and less as the years go by. They should be able to get at least 1 position player for him right now with a few years under his not-as-crazy-as-Arod contract or else it would be a foolish trade.
The Yankees has a lot of positions to fill and very little money in the cap to do so. It’ll be worse in 2014. They currently have two players whom are unlikely to be resigned due to the cap nor realistically should be for various reasons. Cano and Grandy. It makes a bit of sense to trade both off now and get 4 or so immediately useful position players with a few cheap years on their contracts.
Yes, I know the people they’ll get in return won’t be of Cano caliber but what else can the Yankees do? If they don’t make trades like these now, come 2014 they’ll be scrambling to replace those players with even less assets on hand. They don’t exactly have the rookies to promote up and they cannot keep up the good luck by signing dirt cheap vets to 1 and 2 year contracts and hoping they’ll have a great year.
There is not a whole lot that the Yankees can do to remain competitive until Tex/Arod/CC/Jeter contracts expire and that won’t happen for at least 4 more years. They could keep things as they are and have one more playoff run in 2013, but 2014 to 2016 is going to be really bad without any changes at all.
No matter what you or I think about it Cano is being re-signed. He’ll be ridiculously overpaid, they will regret doing it at some point, but he will be a Yankee for the next 7 or so years.
Ok so before the next person decides to post about I don’t think it’s fair A-Rod is getting blamed for a bad postseason,I’m gonna explain why he Should and listen….
This is not the first postseason tht he has done this. We as Yankee fans have been dealing with this from A-Rod for a cple yrs now. He hasn’t earned anything from his contract, and he only plays to get paid hense his 54hr 155RBI season cple yrs ago right around his renewal. I along with all the other Yankee fans don’t care if the guy hits 50-60-70 or even a 100 hr in a season, it’s about when it matters most. When the games mean something. Wht have you done for me lately and he clearly hasn’t performed. You don’t have a target on your back as the biggest paid player in the history of the game with 2 ginormous 10yr contracts equaling $500+mil and strike out on avg 10x’s every postseason. Nough said on tht.
Now onto my second thought about the most overrated & overhyped player to ever wear a Yankee uniform let alone Baseball for tht matter. When the guy sits on the bench for obvious reasons and waves to his mom and says hi, he must be joking and thinks the situation is funny. Tells reporters tht with him in the lineup any team he is on has a better chance of winning. Well I have 1 thing to say A-Rod tht you failed to mention. If your ass was performing and wasn’t striking out as much,your ass would be in the lineup and not on the bench waving high to your mom. See its going down like this!!! You have overstayed your welcome in NY with your free swinging don’t give a shit additude cause you feel or think your bigger then the game and team. Look at wht Texas has done since you left,become a winner again. Your a cancer and thank god we will now be able to recover once we let you become someone else’s problem. Good riddens. I can’t wait…..Only reason people are not wanting to throw all the blame on you for ur horrible postseason is because everyone else is performing just as bad as you are. But 1 thing they forget or didn’t mention is this is wht you do every postseason.
“But 1 thing they forget or didn’t mention is this is wht you do every postseason.”
1997- 4 GP- .313/.313/.563
2000- 9 GP- .371/.421/.600
2004- 11 GP- .320/.414/.600
2007- 4 GP- .267/.353/.467
2009- 15 GP- .365/.500/.808
So I guess None of those postseasons actually existed? I guess the Yankees easily win the 2009 WS without Alex’s .365/.500/.808, 5 2B, 6 HR, 18 RBI, 12 BB, and 2 SB, in a total of 15 games? Let’s completely forget the fact that he carried the offense through the DS and CS in order to get us to that WS in the first place, it does make the narrative that he has “never hit in the postseason” just a little more believable.
“about the most overrated & overhyped player to ever wear a Yankee uniform”
1249 G, .292/.387/.538, 141 OPS+, 302 HRs, 141 SBs, 2 MVPs, a WS Championship, 7 AS appearances, 3 SS awards, and 7 top 15′s in MVP voting… Yeah pretty worthless.
” Look at wht Texas has done since you left,become a winner again.”
Rangers’ Record since alex left.
2004- 89-73, finished 3rd
2005- 79-83, finished 3rd
2006- 80-82, finished 3rd
2007- 75-87, finished 4th
Hamilton Joins team
2008- 79-83, finished 2nd
2009- 87-75, finished 2nd
So yeah, Alex left and they immediately became the best team in baseball. Well it actually took them about 4 years of finishing at the bottom of the division, with a combined record of 323-325, and the acquisition of Josh Hamilton to get good again. Even then they didn’t make the playoffs again until 2010, a full 7 seasons after Alex left.
T.O. You are funny man, that’s not wht I’m saying at all. Besides he plays to get paid. Wht has he done lately. Your mentioning 3yrs ago. He’s done this since then almost every postseason oh btw he got tht $300mil contract right around 09 or 2yrs before tht. Didn’t say Texas was the best in baseball since he left but they def finished in last every yr he was there didn’t they. He comes to us and we only win 1 in 09 with him and had 4 in 5yrs before him while he was enjoying Texas. He is overrated by a lot and again I don’t give a shit if the guy hits a ton during the season til the cows come home. It’s about now,wht have you done lately. We don’t care about 3yrs ago,5yrs ago or 10yrs ago when he actually performed well in the playoffs. But he hasn’t done shit since. Plain and simple. I just don’t understand how you can sit here and defend a guy who just walks up to the plate and swings at everything,strikes out alot,doesn’t care and post this…..
Well he’s a 2x MVP 7x all star blah blah blah. Who cares!!! It’s about right now and he clearly hasn’t lived up to his deal, nough said.