February 16, 2004, 15 years ago: The biggest trade in baseball history -- in terms of money and hype, if not in terms of number of players -- is announced.
The Texas Rangers got Alfonso Soriano, age 28, one of the most exciting talents in baseball, who had mainly been a 2nd baseman, but could also play shortstop and 3rd base; and a player to be named later, who, on April 23, turned out to be Joaquin Arias, 19, a minor-league infielder who ended up playing 474 games in the major leagues, including winning 2 World Series rings as a backup with the 2012 and 2014 San Francisco Giants.
The Yankees got Alex Rodriguez, a shortstop, soon to be 29, accepted by some as the best player in baseball, and the last 7 years of the biggest contract ever signed in professional sports to that point: $252 million.
I had to explain about Arias. But we know what happened to the 2 big names. Soriano bounced around, including back to the Yankees at the end, finishing with 412 home runs and 289 stolen bases, including (as far as we know, he was clean) the only honest season in MLB history with at least 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases, with the 2006 Washington Nationals.
And yet, he got traded again, not because the Nats no longer wanted to deal with him, but because the Chicago Cubs were going for broke, and he did help them reach the postseason in 2007 and 2008.
As for A-Rod: He moved to 3rd base, because Derek Jeter had earned the right to keep playing at shortstop for the Yankees, and ended up helping the Yankees reach the postseason 7 times, but won only 1 Pennant, 2009, also winning the World Series. His regular seasons were solid, sometimes spectacular. His postseasons, 2009 excepted, were horrendous.
He seemed personally responsible for the Yankees' failures to show up in the 2005 American League Division Series, the 2006 ALDS, the 2007 ALDS, the 2010 AL Championship Series, the 2011 ALDS, the 2012 ALCS, and the 2015 AL Wild Card Game. And it all seemed to start with his stupid "Slap Play" in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS.
He finished his career with 14 All-Star berths, 3,115 hits, 696 home runs, 2,086 RBIs, 329 stolen bases, a batting title (before he was a Yankee), 2 Gold Gloves (both before he was a Yankee), 3 AL Most Valuable Player awards (2 as a Yankee)... and 1 World Championship, the category that Yankee Fans should care about.
And he frequently embarrassed the Yankees. If it was just little things, like the various manifestations of his huge ego, I could have lived with it. After all, my favorite player of all time is Reggie Jackson, and I lived with his similar issues.
But Reggie never cheated, as far as we know. A-Rod got caught cheating. Twice. And that was on top of his many postseason failures, and his single postseason success.
No player in the history of baseball has ever polarized fans more. If that's incorrect, then, certainly, none has ever done so within the fandom of his own team.
Since he retired in August 2016, the Yankees have not given uniform Number 13 back out. But they probably won't officially retire it. He may never get a Plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.
And, while he will be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022, don't count on him being elected. Ever. Meanwhile, David Ortiz, who cheated, lied about it, got caught, and still lies about it, becomes eligible at the same time, and will get in on his first chance.
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So, was it a bad trade? Was A-Rod more trouble than he, and the 1 World Championship he helped bring, were worth? Saying we would have won more without him is, at best, a guess.
But the trade made sense at the time.
Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Brian Cashman for Trading for Alex Rodriguez
5. Third Base. In the Abbott & Costello routine "Who's On First?", the third baseman's name is "I Don't Know." And 3rd base has been a troublesome position over the years. In the 1980s, Sports Illustrated did a story examining why the Hall of Fame had fewer players at 3rd base than at any other position. And, a few times, they used the line from the routine: "I don't know. Third base."
The position has often been problematic for both New York teams. The Mets, in particular, made some dumb trades over the years, looking for the right 3rd baseman. After the 1969 World Series, Ed Charles retired, leaving them with Wayne Garrett. In hindsight, trusting Garrett would have left them better off.
Instead, they traded Amos Otis to the Kansas City Royals for Joe Foy. Otis became a star, while Foy was already struggling with drug addiction that shortened his career and, later, his life.
Two years later, they traded a fireballer struggling with his control to the California Angels for Jim Fregosi. Fregosi had been a fine shortstop, but was injured. The Mets were betting on him recovering and being able to play 3rd base. They lost that bet. And the pitcher they traded away? He found his control. His name was Nolan Ryan.
Even in their World Championship year of 1986, they platooned at 3rd base, because Howard Johnson, while he had power and speed, was a lousy fielder, and so Ray Knight played there frequently, enough to be named the Most Valuable Player of that year's World Series. And the Mets' all-time leader in most hitting categories? David Wright, who is now best known for his injuries and his unavailability than he is for any actual achievements or good qualities.
The Yankees have struggled at the position as well. Name a Hall of Fame 3rd baseman for the Yankees. Go ahead. I'll wait.
They had Joe Sewell in 1932, and Wade Boggs in the 1990s. But both made the Hall for what they did earlier. The Yankees have had some very good 3rd basemen, including Red Rolfe, Gil McDougald, Clete Boyer, Graig Nettles and Scott Brosius. But none of those is going to the Hall.
In 2002, following Brosius' retirement, the Yankees alternated between the veteran Robin Ventura and the struggling prospect Alfonso Soriano. In 2003, Soriano didn't seem to want the job, so Aaron Boone was picked up in midseason, and hit the Pennant-winning home run.
Alfonso Soriano
Then Boone wrecked his knee, and the Yankees, once again, needed a 3rd baseman. So the Yankees made the same bet on A-Rod that the Mets made on Fregosi, 32 years earlier. In regular-season play, it worked. In the postseason, not so much.
4. Public Relations. The Red Sox had signed Curt Schilling, to go with their already-loaded team. The Yankees thought they needed a big signing. And the Red Sox almost got A-Rod. This was a chance to put one over on them. Because...
3. Alex Rodriguez -- At the Time. These were A-Rod's OPS+'s from 1996, his 1st full season, until 2003, right before the trade was made: 161, 120, 136, 134, 163, 160, 158 and 147. He had led the AL in batting average once, slugging percentage once, hits once, doubles once, home runs the last 3 seasons, runs batted in once, runs scored once, and total bases 3 times.
And he had won a regular-season MVP award, and the Gold Glove at shortstop -- over Jeter, mind you, and over Boston's Nomar Garciaparra, too -- the last 2 seasons. And he was 28 years old, at his peak.
True, he would be playing a new position, and hitting in a ballpark much far less friendly to righthanded hitters like himself than to lefthanded hitters. But he looked like the prime acquisition of all time. And, needless to say, the Yankees could afford it.
He remains the only active player who had never yet played for the Yankees to have been interviewed by Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay for his YES Network talk show CenterStage. (Kay later brought him back as a Yankee.) Kay told him, "You playing in Texas is like putting the Mona Lisa up in the bathroom."
Alex laughed, because he knew what Kay meant: Dallas is a big metro area, but not a big baseball market, and the Rangers, then as now, were a joke franchise. With his skills, he needed to be at a high-profile team. The Red Sox tried to make that happen. The Yankees succeeded.
What about the red flags? He didn't do well in the postseason for the Seattle Mariners in 1995, but he was 20 and not yet a full-time player. He hit very well in the Playoffs in both 1997 and 2000. And the Texas Rangers were far from Playoff contenders while he was with them, so that wasn't an issue.
The other red flag? His personality? That was barely even a rumor. It was like Michael Jackson before 1991: There were whispers about him being weird (although in very different ways from Jackson), but nothing that was being taken remotely seriously. It was only with the Yankees, and the attention of the New York media, that his quirks were brought to the forefront.
2. Alex Rodriguez -- As He Became. These were A-Rod's OPS+'s from 2004 until 2010, his last full season until injuries and steroid-related suspensions started costing him time (he had 1 more full season, in 2015): 131, 173, 134, 176, 150, 138, 123. He led the AL in slugging 3 times, total bases once, runs twice, home runs twice, and RBIs once.
He won 2 MVPs, and the only season in that stretch in which he wasn't named to the All-Star Game, 2009, he was the leading factor in the Yankees winning the World Series.
And was his postseason performance really that bad? In the 2004 AL Division Series, he batted .421 and a homer and 3 RBIs. In the AL Championship Series, he disappeared over the last 4 games, but in the 1st 3, he had 2 homers and 5 RBIs. He was awful in 2005 and '06, but so was just about every other Yankee in those ALDS's. Even in 2007, he batted .267 with a solo homer.
In the 2009 postseason, he batted over .400 in both the ALDS and the ALCS, and finished with 6 homers, including the only one he would ever hit in World Series play (and even that was controversial: The 1st potential World Series homer ever reviewed by instant replay), and 18 RBIs -- 6 in each round.
In 2007, Major League Baseball expanded the Babe Ruth Award to be the MVP of the entire postseason, the way hockey does with the Conn Smythe Trophy. In 2009, A-Rod got it. would have deserved it. (Hideki Matsui got the official World Series MVP Award.)
Along with the chance to hold the Commissioner's Trophy,
which goes to the entire team.
A-Rod was weak in his subsequent postseason appearances, but, again, in each case, so was pretty much every other player on the Yankees. He could have hit well and inspired them to do better, but the defeats were hardly all his fault.
So, in a regular-season sense, the trade for A-Rod was justified. In a postseason sense? There's the $64 million question.
1. George Steinbrenner. Ultimately, The Boss could have put the kibosh on the deal. But it was exactly the kind of move that he loved, and he jumped at it. So even if you do think the trade wasn't worth it, it was Steinbrenner who should be held responsible, not Cashman. Cashman guessed that this was what the Boss wanted him to do, and the Boss confirmed it.
Without knowing for sure what would have happened, it's difficult to make a serious case that Cashman shouldn't have made the trade. There have been many transactions made by Cashman that made him look like a fool, but this isn't one of them.
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