TAMPA — You can view Alex Rodriguez as the most expensive hood ornament on earth if you want. After all, he is being paid $21 million while not playing this season after a nightmare finish last year to one of the best careers ever.
Rodriguez arrives in Yankees spring training camp Tuesday for the first of three days in uniform and will be available for players, young and old, to pick his razor-sharp mind about the nuances of the game.
Hood ornament? Possibly. Yet, when Rodriguez dropped by the Instructional League last fall, he mesmerized the young players with a speech.
“All eyes were wide open and the ears were locked in,’’ James Kaprielian, the Yankees’ top pitching prospect, said Monday morning when asked about Rodriguez’s talk. “It was good. He gave a lot of insight, how he did his homework before facing a pitcher. Guys could see how much dedication he put into the game and why he was successful the way he was.’’
Rodriguez, who batted a paltry .200 with nine homers, 31 homers and a miserable .598 OPS in 65 games last year, is fourth on the all-time home run list with 696 and second in RBIs with 2,086. He was released on Aug. 13 and hired as a special adviser by Hal Steinbrenner.
The numbers are gaudy but tainted due to Rodriguez admitting he used performance-enhancing drugs while with the Rangers and getting suspended for the 2014 season for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal.
In 2013, Rodriguez filed lawsuits against the Yankees. Now he is mentoring their players.
“You think about the history of this relationship, the history that I know, Mr. [George] Steinbrenner always gave people second and third chances and brought people back to the organization,’’ Joe Girardi said. “There are situations that happened that aren’t so positive, but that didn’t keep Mr. Steinbrenner from bringing back people. Hal is doing the same thing.’’
Girardi said Rodriguez’s understanding of the game can help.
“To extend the knowledge he has about how to play the game, talk to the young kids and some of the expectations: how to deal with some of the different positions and how to hit, how to hit in the middle of the order,’’ Girardi said when asked what was planned for Rodriguez. “Those are the things we want him to offer insight to our young players and to the older players as well.’’
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