Palladino: Yankees And A-Rod Have Deflation Issue Of Their Own
By Ernie Palladino
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The New England Patriots aren't the only ones dealing with deflation issues this week.
Reports indicate the Yanks would love to remove some PSI themselves -- from Alex Rodriguez's wallet. About two pounds worth, if you use the right combination of greenbacks to create a $6 million pile.
If the public relations mess Bill Belichick and Tom Brady and Robert Kraft are muddling through now is a big deal, watch the legal squawking Rodriguez will do if the Steinbrenners try to touch his money.
Most immediately at stake is a $6 million marketing bonus that kicks in if A-Rod hits six more homers to tie Willie Mays at 660. The money comes as part of a separate contract from a player's deal that still owes him $61 million.
Rodriguez will get $6 million for every milestone the 39-year-old passes, starting with Mays. If he last three years with reasonable power, he'll have a shot at another $6 million for Babe Ruth's 714. Less likely are the bonuses attached to Hank Aaron (755) and Barry Bonds (762). But the point remains that a significant amount of money is in play.
The Yanks want out of the deal because their plans for promoting Rodriguez' home run record chase have all allegedly gone up in a syringe of PEDs. Whatever numbers Rodriguez puts up from now on will be tainted, the Yanks will maintain. The marketing angle is shot, because who cares about fake records? So, in the Yankees' mind, A-Rod signed the deal under false pretenses. His involvement in steroids renders it invalid.
Everybody knows by now how fiercely Rodriguez guards his money. Rodriguez went on a legal rampage after his original 211-game suspension, and succeeded in getting it reduced to a year. He sued the Yanks, Major League Baseball, even the players union. Alice in Wonderland and Snow White would have been next up if he hadn't called off the lawyers and accepted the suspension and the accompanying $25 million financial hit.
He's not about to risk several more million while he's playing. And it might just be worth it for him to take the case back into some court if arbitration goes against him, especially now that his own lawyers have gone after him for $380,000 of unpaid fees.
This, as all things A-Rod, is trickier than it looks. On the surface, it would appear the Yanks have a point. The marketing deal was signed well before revelations about Rodriguez's steroids use came to light, so it would seem the organization would be on firm footing on the deception angle.
Then again, numbers are numbers. If A-Rod indeed hits those six homers, he will in fact be tied with Mays. If he continues to hit home runs, his name will sit next to Ruth's.
No asterisks. No qualifications. He's there.
Rodriguez can certainly argue that the Yanks' decision not to market him is their decision, and thus they owe him the money. The home runs are not worthless. They may help the Yanks win games, even return to the playoffs. However many homers his presumably deflated, surgically-repaired body hits, they will exist just as surely as Mays', Ruth's, Aaron's, and Bonds'.
As usual, there are no good guys in this. The Yanks, in their greed for more publicity and fannies in the seats, signed him to a ridiculous $272 million deal after he opted out of his initial contract after the 2007 season. Then they added to the mistake with this separate clause.
A-Rod has since proved himself a rather detestable figure, not just because of his involvement with steroids, but in the Me-Rod manner he exhibits around his teammates.
The Steinbrenners wish he would just go away. That's not going to happen.
They certainly don't want to pay him for the handful of homers he might hit coming off two hip surgeries and a one-year forced vacation.
That probably won't happen, either. Not without another big A-Rod scene, anyway.
As if Joe Girardi doesn't have enough issues trying to recover some measure of Yankee glory, he doesn't need a contractual version of Deflate-gate to go along with them.
