Pic of the Week

Alex Rodriguez, inserted at third base during the ninth
inning during his final game with the Yankees, gathered
a bit of the infield dirt as a memento.

And so the strange and complicated career of Alex Rodriguez is over.

Maybe.

He had an RBI double in four at-bats in what was billed as his final game Friday, which raised his batting average on the year to a woeful .200. As promised (if that's the right word), the Yankees then released him.

While it's safe to say that Rodriguez is done playing for the Yankees, I doubt anybody will be surprised if he signs elsewhere -- assuming that somebody thinks he's worth the major league minimum. I wouldn't think so, but it only takes one.

Notes, quotes and comment

Thursday was my biweekly appearance on KMSU to talk Twins with Jim Gullickson, and anybody who was aware of what was actually going on at Target Field at that moment -- I wasn't -- must have thought us a bit deranged with our optimism.

Nothing much good happened for the Minnesota team Thursday in either game. Jose Berrios got knocked out after two innings; Buddy Boshers was shelled and put on the disabled list; Tommy Milone, given another start after Wednesday's rainout, only lasted three innings and is to get an MRI on his left shoulder. Eduardo Escobar wound up pitching an inning in the opener, and Andrew Albers, who I never thought I'd see again in a Twins uniform, wore it in the second game:

At 3rd, Albers tossed 108 pitchers tonight, most ever in a game by a reliever for #MNTwins since starting to track pitch count in 1987...

— TwinsRadio (@TwinsRadio) August 12, 2016

Just ugly.

---

Darin Mastroianni, who spent a good chunk of the season on the major league disabled list, was released after the Twins shipped Bryon Buxton back to Rochester earlier this week. Mastroianni's about to turn 31, hasn't hit (or stayed healthy) in his limited major league time and wasn't having a particularly good season in Triple A, so he might be done.

If so, too bad. I never thought him a potential regular, much less a star, but he's probably no worse a player than some reserve outfielders who have found ways to hang onto major league roster spots. What, really, is the difference between Mastroianni and Shane Robinson as players? The breaks went against Mastro.

---

Today is, theoretically, the final game of Alex Rodriguez's career, although there is no shortage of speculation that A-Rod would rather keep playing than actually do the special advisor gig he and the Yankees announced last week. (He's gonna get his money either way.)

Apparently Buster Olney of ESPN has named the Twins as a potential landing place for Rodriguez. I can't see it. The Twins have more than enough corner infield/DH types on their roster -- Joe Mauer, Miguel Sano, Trevor Plouffe, Kennys Vargas, plus Byung Ho Park in Rochester. Giving a roster spot to A-Rod, much less at-bats, would be foolish.

If Rodriguez does keep playing, Miami is a more likely option. Owner Jeffrey Loria is notably foolish, and he has a Yankee fetish that apparently must be appeased regularly (these are probably connected). Plus Miami is Rodriguez's hometown.

Three tangents on A-Rod

I wrote either too much or not enough about Alex Rodriguez for the Monday print column. If you want more on the subject from me, you're in luck; if not, well, it's my blog and you can't stop me.

---

Few teams have boasted the top-level talent of the Seattle Mariners in the 1990s. Ken Griffey Jr. was a Gold Glove center fielder who hit more than 600 homers. Alex Rodriguez was a Gold Glove shortstop who hit more than 600 homers. Randy Johnson, left-handed pitcher, won more than 300 games and struck out almost 5,000 hitters. There's a decent argument to be made for each as the greatest player ever at their position. (I'll even accept it for Johnson).

And backing them up were some other pretty darn good players. Edgar Martinez has a legit Cooperstown case. Jamie Moyer won 270 games himself. Jay Buhner was a quality right fielder. Dan Wilson (former Gopher) was a solid receiver.

And what did the M's accomplish with this terrific talent? Not much.

They had the misfortune to be in the same league as the Derek Jeter dynasty Yankees, a team that was deeper than the M's and not much behind them in front-line talent. Griffey and Johnson forced trades as they neared free agency, and Rodriguez fled for bigger money as soon as he could. And after those three were gone, the Mariners had their best season, when the rookie Ichiro Suzuki arrived from Japan and the M's won 116 games -- and got beat by the Yanks in the playoffs.

Twins fans beef about Ron Gardenhire's inability to navigate his team past the Yanks in the postseason in the 2000s, and to be sure, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Johan Santana were a pretty salty trio on which to base a roster. But Gardy's Twins were not more disappointing than Lou Piniella's Mariners.

---

Somebody dubbed them "the Trinity" -- three glorious shortstops who hit the American League pretty much simultaneously in the mid 1990s. A-Rod. Jeter. Nomar Garciaparra. Miguel Tejada broke in about the same time too, but without the hype and expectations. Sprinkle in the veteran Omar Vizquel, and the American League had five Cooperstown-level shortstops jostling each other for All-Star berths for about a decade.

My guess is that at most three of those five will actually get into the Hall, and maybe only one. Jeter, obviously. Vizquel, the least of the five as a hitter, has a chance to be seen by the electorate as the equivalent of the enshrined Luis Aparicio. Rodriguez and Tejada have the steroid taint on their resumes, and they will need a more forgiving electorate (which may be coming) to get in. And Garciaparras body started to betray him in his late 20s; he was finished as a regular in his mid 30s.

We have a somewhat similar wave of shortstop talent hitting the majors today: Xander Bogearts, Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, Addison Russell, Corey Seager. Appreciate them. From my perch today, it seems so recent that A-Rod and Jeter had their futures ahead of them.

---

World War II ended in 1945. From that time until 1974, when Robin Yount debuted, only two shortstops destined for Cooperstown broke in: Ernie Banks and Aparicio. That's almost 30 years.

Draw up a list of the all-time great shortstops, and you might be startled at the recentness of the list.

It starts, of course, with somebody whose peak was more than a century ago: Honus Wagner. But for my tastes -- and your opinion may differ -- most of the rest of the top 10 are guys I saw play: Jeter and A-Rod, Yount and Cal Ripken, Barry Larkin and Alan Trammell and Ozzie Smith. (Trammell's not in the Hall, but he ought to be.) You can line them up however you want and sprinkle in the likes of Joe Cronin, Banks, Arky Vaughn and Luke Appling as you prefer, but those seven are there.

I've listed 13 "shortstops" in this segment. But Yount spent almost half his career in the outfield, Banks actually played more games at first base than at short and Rodriguez, as noted in the print column, has almost as many games at third base as at shortstop. Ripken ended his career at third; Wagner, oddly, didn't become a regular shortstop until he was 29. The top-flight guys who actually spent their careers at shortstop are pretty darn rare.

Pic of the Week

Alex Rodriguez takes a curtain call Thursday after
hitting his 661st career home run, passing Willie Mays
on the all-time list.

Alex Rodriguez played in 28 of the New York Yankees' first 30 games this year, and while his batting average (.248) isn't impressive, his on-base percentage is a very usable .348 and his slugging percentage is a strong .546.

Not bad for a guy who the tabloids were describing all winter as a veritable cripple who would likely be unable to take the field.

And, of course, on Thursday he passed Willie Mays on the all-time home run list. You may discount that as you wish; you are free to regard A-Rod's steroid use as worse than Mays' amphetamine assistance. (Rodriguez probably used those too.) Rodriguez has hit 661 regular season homers, and every one of them resulted in real runs in real games. They all counted.

Pic of the Week

Alex Rodriguez fist-bumps a young autograph seeker
before a spring training game in Clearwater, Florida, on Friday.

If you believe the New York City tabloids (frequently a risky proposition), Alex Rodriguez entered spring training on the verge of physical breakdown and with the Yankees management devoutly wishing that he would quickly reinjure his post-surgical hips. Supposedly the Yankees covet the insurance money on A-Rod's bloated contract more than they covet whatever he can do on the field. (That they had the veteran make the long haul to Clearwater says something about how they view him.)

So far this spring, the 39-year-old is slashing .306/.405/.583 with three homers. He's seen only limited time on the field -- a little third base, a little first base action scheduled for today -- but mostly DH. This was expected; the Yankees re-signed midseason trade acquisition Chase Headley for third base and have Mark Teixeira at first. (It's completely possible that Teixeira will break down before Rodriguez does. Neither veteran has a stellar health record of late.)

There's no need to root for the widely-reviled Rodriguez, who missed all of 2014 to suspension for his involvement in the Biogenesis performance-enhancers scandal. But he's a no-loss proposition for devoted Yankee haters such as me. The Yankees many not want him, but he's not going anywhere, and he's got two more seasons on his contract after this one.

The story of three PED users

The A-Rod letter of apology.

Andy Pettitte admitted using performance-enhancing drugs. The Yankees announced this week that they will retire his number and honor him with a plaque in Monument Park.

Jason Giambi admitted using performance-enhancing drugs. When the 44-year-old former MVP announced his retirement this week, there was an outpouring of respect and affection around the game.

Alex Rodriguez on Tuesday released a hand-written letter of apology to "the fans" for "mistakes" that led to his season-long suspension last year. He is drawing near-universal scorn.

There are differences among these three, not least of which is that A-Rod continued to use even after the game's culture shifted. I am much more forgiving of players who used steroids in the heart of the Selig era, when there was no real rule against using and a culture that essentially expected use. That's when Pettitte used. That's when Giambi used.

A-Rod used then too. But he also used after the rules changed.

Does the apology matter? Not to me. Rodriguez is a baffling figure; he had every baseball gift a player could ask for, and it was never enough. I cannot pretend to understand what drove him to use even after it became anathema. Unlike Barry Bonds, Rodriguez seems to want to be liked; he just doesn't know how to get there. I don't think he can get there -- at least, not without opening a vein of humility and detailing not just the what but the why in a way that isn't self-serving and defensive.

He doesn't have to do that, and I don't expect him to. Giambi and Pettitte didn't either, and they still have the admiration around the game -- certainly from the media -- that has eluded Rodriguez for years and probably always will.

This is "potent"? Really?

Alex Rodriguez paid $12,000 a month for this?

I wasn't going to comment further on Alex Rodriguez' suspension. I did a post after the arbitrator's announcement; I wrote the Free Press editorial on  the subject, which ran in this morning's paper. I'd said what I have to say.

And then the US Anti-Doping Agency chimed in with this nonsense:

"... probably the most potent and sophisticated drug program developed for an athlete that we've ever seen ... a potent cocktail of sophisticated PEDs stacked together to deliver power, aid recovery, avoid detection and create a home run champion."

Ahem. Guys, have you looked at what Alex Rodriguez did while on the "most potent drug program we've ever seen?"

The last three seasons, in which Rodriguez was on this potent, sophisticated regimen, he hit .269 and slugged .441 while averaging just 88 games a season. They were his three worst seasons since he was a teenager.

The PEDs didn't work. I know Sunday's "60 Minutes" made it sound like Anthony Bosch was supplying miracle candy, but that report was infused with a noticeable lack of thought and skepticism throughout.

The truth is, A-Rod went into the kind of rapid decline and injury rate one should expect of even a talented athlete in his late 30s. Indeed, considering how high his production was in his prime, his decline might be even more rapid than one should expect.

Home run champion? The man hasn't slugged .500 since the summer he met Bosch.

Aid recovery? That was a nice hip surgery he had last year. It matched the one he had in 2009.

The Anti-Doping Agency has a self-serving reason to sound alarmed. Guys like Bosch are its reason for existence. But really, the foes of performance enhancers should be trumpeting the failure of this "sophisticated" approach to chemical enhancement, not talking it up.

Doing the Yankees' dirty work

Alex Rodriguez has vowed to take his
case to federal court, but the courts
are unlikely to get involved in a
labor arbitration case.

Back in the 1980s, George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, was eager to find a way out of the 10-year contract he had signed with Dave Winfield — so  eager that he paid out some $40,000 to a lowlife named Howie Spira, who claimed mob connections, to smear the outfielder.

That scheme backfired on Steinbrenner, who wound up suspended in 1990 by then-Commissioner Fay Vincent. (That suspension is widely seen as a crucial first step in the creation of the late-decade Yankee dynasty; with Steinbrenner out of the way, the baseball people were free to draft and develop cornerstone players Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte.)

Today the Steinbrenner sons are equally eager to get out of their contract with Alex Rodriguez, which runs through 2017 and calls for the third baseman to get some $86 million the rest of the way — plus $6 million in bonuses for home run milestones.

The A-Rod contract posed a major financial problem for the Yankees, who really want to break their string of escalating luxury tax penalties. They had targeted 2014 as the year to get the payroll under $189 million. Getting under that figure breaks the string and ends the escalation of the penalties. But A-Rod was to get $25 million this year.

Now he's to just get $3 million, because on Saturday an arbitrator deemed his suspension for the full season to be valid under major league rules and the labor agreement.

Rob Manfred, COO of Major League Baseball, on
Sunday's "60 Minutes" puff piece.

Major League Baseball — the commissioner's office, and specifically Rob Manfred, widely seen as the successor to Bud Selig when Selig retires — got the evidence to suspend Rodriguez by paying a lowlife named Tony Bosch.

Few can legitimately sympathize with Rodriguez, but one lesson for all should be clear: If you want to get out of your contract, get the commissioner's office to do the bribing.

My distaste for the Yankees no doubt colors my thinking, but I would be far happier with the A-Rod ruling if it didn't relieve the Yankees of serious financial pain that was the result of their own foolishness. The $25 million should still be marked against the Yankees for luxury tax purposes.

Anything less than that will leave a legitimate suspicion that MLB's dogged pursuit of Rodriguez was less about steroids and more about helping the Yankees avoid the consequences of their bad decision.

Winter meetings, Day 1

Monday was an outwardly quiet day for the Twins at the winter meetings.

Terry Ryan told SiriusXM radio that Joe Mauer wouldn't be traded (now there's a news flash; I have no idea why the Star Tribune keeps dragging that nonsense out); Ron Gardenhire told MLB TV that the front office is busy trying to trade his entire team; no moves were actually made.

By the Twins or anybody else. The biggest news of the day:

Umpire Hank O'Day. He
is the only man to
play, manage and
umpire in the majors.

• Alex Rodriguez needs hip surgery again; the Yankee third baseman is prehabbing now, will have the surgery in January and is unlikely to play before midsummer. Brian Cashman had an amusing reason for not revealing this earlier: Nobody ever specifically asked him about A-Rod's hip.
• Joe Mauer will play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic next spring; Justin Morneau will play for Canada. Liam Hendriks was also announced for Australia, but Ryan said Hendriks had his elbow scoped and will not pitch in the tournament. 
• The Veterans Committee elected three men from the pre-integration era to the Hall of Fame: umpire Hank O'Day, catcher Deacon White and owner Jacob Ruppert. 

That Ruppert, the owner who turned the Yankees into the Yankees, wasn't already in the Hall is inexplicable. O'Day is most noteworthy as the man who made probably the most famous controversial call in umpiring history; he's the guy who ruled Fred Merkle out in 1908. Merkle's Boner. The call was correct by the written rule, but it went against the conventions of the day. White was a standout in the early days of professional ball -- a 20-year-career and a barehanded catcher.

A barehanded catcher. Yeah, I don't want to think about it either. It was definitely a different game then, but still ...

The shell of A-Rod

Swing and a miss: Rodriguez struck out in
this eighth-inning at-bat with two on against
low-angle righty Darren O'Day.

Alex Rodriguez is far from the only Yankee struggling at the plate in this fascinating division series with Baltimore.

Cleanup hitter Robinson Cano is 2 for 18. Curtis Granderson is 1 for 16 with nine strikeouts.

But it's A-Rod who has been pinch-hit for in consecutive games against Orioles closer Jim Johnson. It worked sensationally well in Game 3, when Raul Ibanez created a legend with back-to-back jacks to first tie then win the game. It didn't work in Game 4.

Rodriguez did draw a walk and line a single off Joe Saunders on Thursday, but once the Orioles replaced the lefty and Rodriguez had to face right-handers, he was lost again.

Pinch-hitting for the 647-homer man on Wednesday created quite a stir; when it happened again on Thursday, TBS' Ernie Johnson could barely be bothered to mention who Eric Chavez was hitting for. And the question was less why Joe Girardi was hitting for A-Rod with two outs in the 13th and down a run than why he didn't hit for A-Rod in the eighth with two men on.

This morning, the question is: Will Girardi start Rodriguez in today's Game 5 against the right-handed Jason Hammel, or will he fit another left-handed bat into his lineup at Rodriguez's expense?

And the deeper question is: Is this just a slump, or have age and injury dissolved Rodriguez's talents to the point that he's no longer usable against right-handed pitching? This year, he hit .308/.410/.514 against southpaws, but just .256/.326/.391 against righties.

One season's platoon split is not conclusive evidence, but it's increasingly clear that he has trouble catching up to fastballs.

A perfect game

Dallas Braden had been best known as a promising left-handed pitcher in the Oakland system.

He got a bit more attention earlier this year when he publicly called out Alex Rodriguez for running across the pitchers mound. A-Rod's sneering response: "How many games has he won?"

Last week, in a radio interview, Braden renewed his jabs at the Yankee star. A-Rod replied: "I don't want to extend his 15 minutes of fame."

On Sunday, Braden threw a perfect game at the Tampa Bay Rays. His fame is going to last a bit longer than 15 minutes. And for those foolish enough to judge someone's credibility by his stats, he rose a bit.

Box score here. Game story here.

Quotes, notes and comments

* That was the very definition of pitching efficiency Friday from Jose Mijares: One pitch, two outs.

Mijares hadn't pitched in a week. On July 19, his previous outing, he faced three hitters and didn't throw a first-pitch strike to any of them (and gave up a homer to Jeff Keppinger in the process). His appearance before that, June 16, he pitched on inning, giving up two hits and a walk but no runs. And that outing followed a spell in which he was used five times in eight days.

Sometimes Ron Gardenhire's bullpen usage seems to follow this pattern — use a guy hard, then ease off when he shows signs of breaking down. The problem comes when the easing off comes too late, as with Matt Guerrier last season.

* What a surprise: Milton Bradley had a temper tantrum Friday. What a secondary surprise: Lou Piniella reacted:

"I told him to take his uniform off. He threw his helmet and smashed a water cooler, water flying all over. I just told him to take his uniform off and go home. I followed him up into the clubhouse, and we exchanged some words."

Bradley (above) is not the only Cub to bash water coolers; Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster have too. Piniella — notorious for his short fuse — doesn't really seem the guy to calm things down, and there've been times this season when he's joked about it.

* Alex Rodriguez is being described as a shell of the player he once was. How much of it is the hip — remember, the surgery this spring was not a complete correction of the problem, but an attempt to get him back on the field for this season, with another surgery to come — and how much is the fact that he's about to turn 34 (and may be off the juice) is a matter of conjecture.

His OBP (.389) and SLUG (.487) aren't nearly as bad as his batting average (.227), and since the Yankees started making an effort to give him days off and started enforcing limits on his batting practice, his numbers have picked up (.333 BA over his past 10 games. Of course, he's been facing National League pitching, and that's probably had something to do with his surge.

Still: The Yankees have 10 more years to go on that contract.

*David Ortiz's stat line for the season remains ugly, but his baseball obituary appears to have been premature. His slash line for June: .311/.386/.705. Again, however: NL pitching.

Meanhile, teammate Mike Lowell — who had the same hip problem as A-Rod — is also running into problems, and the attempted solutions include an injection of an artifical lubricant and a reduction in his playing time.