There's blood in the water. Rumors resurfaced that the Yankees are considering cutting Alex Rodriguez. The current question is whether the Yankees should play Rodriguez or Aaron Hicks. The Yankees won't cut Hicks because he is making the minimum, a bit more than half a million dollars. Rodriguez is making $21 million with another $21 million owed to him in 2017. Let's lay out those numbers.
Hicks: $574,000 in 2016
Rodriguez: $21,000,000 (only $7,000,000 for the remainder of 2016) plus for 2017 another $21,000,000.
So, if the Yankees cut Rodriguez, they still owe him $28,000,000. That doesn't sound very smart but the Steinbrenner Kids are dumb and lazy. It's possible that they may yet determine that their 16 year incumbent general manager Brian Cashman has long since outlived his usefulness but who knows.
Neither Hicks nor Rodriguez is hitting. One reason Rodriguez is not hitting in recent games is that Hicks is taking his plate appearances and also playing the outfield. Rodriguez has hit well as recently as last season. Hicks has never hit well at the major league level, which is why the Twins gave up on him.
In three days Rodriguez will be 41 years old. Oct. 2 Hicks will become 27. Hicks has plenty of ball playing ahead of him but he's also had plenty of time to show what he can do and he has not shown much.
Rodriguez has 696 career home runs. Opposing teams still pitch carefully to him. They seem much less concerned about pitching to Hicks. Hicks can still run fast but Hicks has tried to steal twice and been thrown out both times. Rodriguez has three attempts and has been safe on all three.
2016 splits:
against right handed pitchers:
Rodriguez: 151 PA, .574 OPS, 6 HR
Hicks: 134 PA, .612 OPS, 2 HR
against left handed pitchers:
Rodriguez: 76 PA, .710 OPS, 3 HR
Hicks: 82 PA, .436 OPS, 1 HR
Whom would you play?
Cut Alex Rodriguez? What minor league batting stats justify major league playing time? Saturday, June 25, 2016
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