RELEASE IS THE WORD
Seeing light, A-Rod ends purgatory with Friday exit & advisor gig
Alex Rodriguez’s days on the field with the Yankees will come to an end Friday, when he suits up for the final time in The Bronx.
After that, he’ll become a special advisor and instructor with the Yankees through the end of the 2017 season. In his new role, he will report to team owner Hal Steinbrenner.
“This is a tough day,’’ an emotional Rodriguez said during a press conference at the Stadium on Sunday before the Yankees beat the Indians, 3-1. “I love this game and I love this team. And today I’m saying goodbye to both.”
He wil l be unconditionally released by the team Friday and then head home to Miami before assuming his new duties in spring training.
“No athlete ever ends a career the way you want to,” Rodriguez said. “We all want to keep playing forever, but it doesn’t work that way. Accepting the end gracefully is part of being a professional athlete. Saying goodbye may be the hardest part of the job, but that’s what I’m doing today.’’
The move was i ni t i ate d by Steinbrenner in a series of conversations within the last week, as Rodriguez’s role on the team became more and more irrelevant. And despite being jettisoned, he will still get the roughly $27 million the Yankees owe him.
And t hat ’s t r ue even if he decides to come back and try to play again for another team, something general manager Brian Cashman said Rodriguez would be free to do. But Cashman also pointed out there had been no trade talk with other teams before the decision to release Rodriguez this week was made.
“A lot’s happened in the last 72 hours,” Rodriguez said. “I have not thought past the pinstripes.”
Sources said he would consider returning if the right offer came along, but CC Sabathia wasn’t buying it — saying Rodriguez isn’t going to join another team after the dust settles Friday.
“I k n ow he wo n ’ t , ’ ’ said Sabathia, who talked to Rodriguez on Saturday. “That’s a crazy hypothetical. … I think Al makes decisions and t h ey ’ re p re tty much final.”
Still, when asked if he believed he could sti l l play, Rodriguez said: “You always think that you have one more hit and can help your team win one more game, for sure. That wasn’t in the cards. That was the Yankees’ decision. I’m at peace with it.’’
Among his duties in his new role will be addressing some of the organization’s younger players and telling them he’s been “to hell and back and made every mistake in the book.”
“After spending several days discussing this plan with Alex, I am pleased that he will remain a part of our organization moving forward and transition into a role in which I know he can flourish,” Steinbrenner said in a statement. “Alex has already proven to be a willing and effective mentor to many players who have come through our clubhouse, and I am confident that this next phase of his baseball life will bring out the best in Alex and the next generation of Yankees.”
A source told The Post’s Joel Sherman that Steinbrenner never threatened Rodriguez with immediate release and Rodriguez said of any ultimatum: “I don’t think the conversations ever got that strong or aggressive. They didn’t need to.”
After a surprising revival in 2015, when he f inished with 33 homers, Rodriguez has struggled this season. The part-time DH hasn’t even played against lefthanded starters or pinch hit— leaving him without much of a role.
“It ’s been very painful and embarrassing to sit on the bench,” Rodriguez said. “It’s been awkward.”
Rodriguez came to the Yankees in 2004 after Aaron Boone suffered an offseason knee injury and the Yankees needed a third baseman. Rodriguez shifted from shortstop to third when he got to The Bronx. He won two AL MVP awards with the Yankees and was a key member of the 2009 World Series team.
During Sunday’s press conference, Cashman took off his 2009 World Series ring and put it on the table.
“That doesn’t come along to this franchise’s trophy case without Alex Rodriguez,” he said.
Rodriguez was also suspended by MLB for 162 games in 2014 for his involvement in the Biogenesis PED scandal.
When it came to how he wanted to be remembered, Rodriguez acknowledged his past mistakes.
“I do want to be remembered as someone who was madly in love with the game of baseball, someone who loves it at every level,’’ he said. “Someone who loves to learn it, play it, teach it, coach it. And also, I’m going to be hopefully remembered as someone who tripped and fell a lot, but someone that kept getting up.”