12 August 2016

Father Time benches Alex Rodriguez

Sometimes, aging baseball players end their careers on a high note. Red Sox great Ted Williams hit a home run in his last at-bat. Yankee Andy Pettite pitched a 5-hit complete game in his last start, beating Houston 2–1. Both were 41 years old.

Others do not. Warren Spahn, perhaps the best left-handed pitcher in history, should have retired at age 42 after a 23–7 season. Instead, he played another two years, winning 13 but losing 29.

This evening, Alex Rodriguez, now 41, plays his last game in a Yankee uniform. He’s spent most of the summer on the bench, his ability to make contact with the ball all but gone, a drag on his team, and an embarrassment to himself. Why has he hung on so long? There are 40 million reasons. He’s getting paid $22 million for the season, and will be paid another $21 million next year despite being released after tonight’s game.

He had a good year in 2015, but that’s the only good year he’s had since his age 34 season in 2010, when he hit his 600th home run. The graphs below tell the story. His lifetime statistics for runs batted in and home runs flatten once he turned 35 and became just another journeyman player, injury prone and in decline. Millions will be watching. I’m a life long Yankees fan, but I’m not wasting my evening watching a has-been disgrace himself in the batter’s box.