A-Rod Cost Yankees $317 Million For 1 Championship
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NEW YORK (AP) - By the time Alex Rodriguez collects his last payment as a player from the Yankees next year, he will have received $317,368,852 from New York, according to a review of his contracts by The Associated Press.
Luxury tax caused by his deal totaled an additional $132 million through this year, although the Yankees could have spent more money on other players had A-Rod not been on the roster.
Was it worth it, given that the Yankees have won one World Series title during his years in pinstripes?
"One individual is not responsible for winning only one world championship, because that's part of the team effort," general manager Brian Cashman said Wednesday. "He had a big piece of that success and in most cases more so than most."
New York acquired Rodriguez from Texas in February 2004 for infielder Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named, who turned out to be Joaquin Arias — an infielder who drove in 95 runs over eight big league seasons.
In all, Rodriguez will earn about $448 million as a player, including $119 million from Texas and about $12 million from Seattle.
Heading into Friday night's finale, the last game before New York releases him, the 41-year-old Rodriguez has hit .284 with 351 homers and 1,094 RBIs for the Yankees, helping them win their 27th Series title in 2009 but often failing in other postseasons. He won AL MVP awards in 2005 and 2007, raising his total to three.
"The trade with Texas was a tremendous move," Cashman said. "We added one of the game's greatest players at a discounted price because there were considerable offsets of salary, and we got a lot of production from him for quite some time."
A-Rod cost the Yankees $61 million in salary from 2004-07 plus an additional $3.5 million in award bonuses. An additional $22 million he earned over those four seasons was paid by New York and reimbursed by the Rangers.
Rodriguez opted out of the remainder of his deal to become a free agent, giving up $72 million in salary over three seasons. On Dec. 13, 2007 — the same day the Mitchell Report on drugs in baseball was released — Rodriguez finalized a $275 million, 10-year contract to remain with the Yankees.
He was suspended by Major League Baseball for the entire 2014 season for violations of the sport's drug agreement and labor contract, and an arbitrator cut his $25 million salary for that season to $2,868,852, taking away 162/183rds of the total.
Rodriguez's Yankees contract pays him in monthly installments, and the last payment is due on Dec. 31, 2017. However, he still will receive money from the Rangers; at the time of the trade, the $36 million in deferred money from the $252 million, 10-year deal he signed with Texas in December 2000 was converted to an assignment bonus, which accrues interest at a 2 percent annual rate.
His first payment from the Rangers was due this June 15 and the last is owed him on June 15, 2025.
New York avoided a $6 million marketing payment due last year for matching Willie Mays' total of 660 home runs. After the Yankees refused to pay, claiming Rodriguez had no marketing value following his season-long suspension, the team agreed to make $3.5 million in charitable contributions.
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