AROD - off of Tom Hicks' payroll

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October 29, 2007
For Rodriguez and Yankees, It’s All but Over

By JACK CURRY and TYLER KEPNER
DENVER, Oct. 28 — Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who had one of the best statistical seasons in the storied history of the Yankees, opted out of the final three years on his 10-year, $252 million contract Sunday, according to his agent. The move makes him a free agent and potentially ends his career with the team.

“We have put it in writing and sent it to the Yankees,” Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Boras, said in a telephone interview.

The Yankees had said they would not negotiate with Rodriguez if he opted out, so he might have played his final game with them. There is a chance that the Yankees could change their minds and negotiate with Boras toward a contract, but Rodriguez will be a free agent and will be able to negotiate with all 30 teams.

On the night their archrival, the Boston Red Sox, won the World Series for the second time in four seasons, the Yankees may have lost the player widely considered the best in the game. Rodriguez led the major leagues this season with 54 home runs, including the 500th of his career, and 156 runs batted in. He is expected to win his third Most Valuable Player award.

By opting out, Rodriguez will forfeit the potential $91 million that is left on his contract. Also, the Texas Rangers, who traded Rodriguez to the Yankees in 2004, will not be responsible for subsidizing $30 million of his salary.

“It’s a shame,” Hank Steinbrenner, who is now running the Yankees, said late Sunday night. “But we are all in agreement: myself, my dad, my brother, all the baseball people. If you don’t want to be a Yankee and paid what you’re being paid, we don’t want you, that’s the bottom line. You’d be hard-pressed to argue that point. If you don’t understand the magnitude of being a Yankee and understand what that means, and being the highest-paid player in baseball, I think it’s pretty obvious.”

Hank Steinbrenner, and his brother, Hal, have taken over day-to-day operations of the team in place of their father, George, the team’s principal owner.

Steinbrenner has said the Yankees will not pursue Rodriguez as a free agent.
“If we’re going to make you rich and we’re going to give you the privilege of being a Yankee,” he said, “you’ve got to show us you want to be here.”

In Denver, as the Red Sox celebrated their fresh World Series title on the field, a few hundred fans stood behind the third-base dugout and gave them some off-season advice. They shouted, “Don’t sign A-Rod.” Earlier, the fans had chanted the R-rated version of “A-Rod stinks.” Mike Lowell, Boston’s third baseman, can become a free agent, too, so the fans also chanted, "Give Lowell the money."

Boras made his announcement by e-mailing The Associated Press during the World Series game. The uncertain futures of closer Mariano Rivera, catcher Jorge Posada and pitcher Andy Pettitte, who are potential free agents, affected Rodriguez’s thinking. The Yankees are also in the process of hiring a manager to replace Joe Torre.

“Alex wanted to know what the composition of the team was going to be,” Boras said. “What those
players are going to do is important. He didn’t want to have a deadline on making this decision.” Boras spoke to General Manager Brian Cashman about Rodriguez’s decision by telephone.

“He told me to thank Alex for all that he had done,” Boras said. “He told me that he was a great player.”
Throughout this season, Rodriguez said that he wanted to stay in New York and play for the Yankees. As recently as late September, Rodriguez said, “This feels like home.” During spring training, Rodriguez said, “I understand I have an option, but I want to be a New York Yankee.”

Rodriguez had until 10 days after the World Series to decide whether he wanted to opt out. By making the announcement before the 10 days started, Boras was putting pressure on the Yankees. If the Yankees do not budge from their stance, they will lose their best player. If the Yankees change their minds and agree to negotiate with Boras, Boras will know how badly they want to keep Rodriguez and will be able to use that as leverage.

“It’s a shame, because he’s an all-right guy,” Steinbrenner said. “I hope he doesn’t have outside influences that are causing him to make a mistake.”

Steinbrenner said Rodriguez had never responded to his telephone messages, but Rodriguez had been made aware of the offer the Yankees intended to make.

“They’ve been told the starting point of a negotiation, which would have been more than he’s getting paid now, and we also called him personally and left messages trying to get him to come to Tampa to meet with us.”

The Yankees planned to make Rodriguez an offer that gave him a raise over the $25.2 million average annual value of his current contract, and they wanted to tie him up until 2015, when he will turn 40.
In an interview before Boras’s announcement, Steinbrenner said he would try to impress on Rodriguez the value of winning titles and making his legacy as a Yankee. He related a story of talking to Joe DiMaggio, who told him his championships would not have been half as meaningful if he had won them for any other team.

“Does he want to go into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee,” Steinbrenner said, “or a Toledo Mud Hen?”