A-Rod Soft Shoe Begins Today

So I open up the Stamford Advocate this morning and see this article about how Alex Rodriguez is already side-stepping the issue of whether he will opt out of his record breaking $252 million contract at the end of this season. This is the same out clause that JD Drew and Scott Boras (Arod's agent too) used to get out of Los Angeles and hit pay dirt in Boston this winter. Regardless of whether you think that Arod stay in pinstripes was successful or not, why would he stay and quite frankly, who can blame him if he opts out.

Let me just state for the record, that I am sure he will opt-out of his contract at the end of this year. Why because he and Boras have already proved that they are all about the money and winning means practically nothing to them when he signed with Texas in 2000. I have already ranted about this particular Arod hypocrisy back in Dec 2003 here and here.

Lets also figure he has a better chance of signing a 5 year contract when he is 32 next year, rather than getting a 2-3 year contract of equal value when he is 35 at the end of the current contract. This is especially true after seeing the amount of money flung at mediocre players this past off-season.

Here are some various scenarios and how they will play out in his favor.

1) If he has a great year, and a great playoffs he will use that as leverage to show he still is one of the leagues top players and someone is going to sign and pay for that . I am guessing a 7 year deal.

2) If he has a poor year by his standards, and still above average compared to the rest of the league, and with a mediocre performance in the playoffs, he will parlay that into a new 5 year contract since he would still be considered a top, if not maybe elite player and get to prove that he just could not excel in New York.

Either way it is a win/win for him if he is just interested in money. I don't ever want to hear him say that he is all about winning again, if he opts out and signs with some perennially crappy team for a huge salary next year. His will then have zero credibility with me, not that he has much now anyways.

So back to the side-stepping soft shoe last night. I cannot really blame him for not speaking of the situation and only wanting to discussing the coming year. He was after all, appearing at a charity event, he has not scheduled to report to Spring Training for at least another week or two, and already the questioning about 2008 has begun. Arod responded with all the correct rote answers about focusing on this year, and how the team has improved, etc.

I know that ARod bashing is considered good sport here in the New York Metropolitan area, but come on already. Lets give this guy a chance to play this year, focus on his relationship with manager Joe Torre who batted him 8th in the playoffs last year. At least that is relative to the upcoming season. If the Yankees go in the tank, or if ARod goes into the tank, then we can begin discussing 2008, but right now everyone is still 0-0 and the focus should be on spring and rebirth, and wiping the slate clean. But hey, maybe that is just me.