DETROIT -- Alex Rodriguez has been with the Yankees for nine seasons, and in that time, he has helped the team win a championship with a lot of hits and home runs, a lot of big moments -- and he's helped a lot of young players along the way. His presence has also created a lot of off-field drama, from his admission of the use of performance-enhancing drugs to his once-strained relationships with Joe Torre and Derek Jeter, etc.
The drama/production ratio seemed to have finally tipped, as he changed from a player who blamed himself -- look in the mirror, he said last week -- to someone who still had his sweatshirt on during the ninth inning the other night, with his body language screaming: Don't ask me to pinch-hit. He then worked to feed those conspiracy theories after wading into a crowd of reporters Wednesday.
So, yes, the Yankees will probably talk to the Marlins and hold their own lawn sale, taking 10 cents on the dollar just to get rid of an outdated superstar. Mark Buehrle's contract is heavily backloaded, and he's overpriced, so maybe the Yankees will ask about the left-hander, or maybe they'll take Heath Bell in return just to make the money work out a little better.
This does have the feel of the Yankees' handling of A.J. Burnett last winter, when they just decided: This is not going to work anymore. Alex Rodriguez is not playing because he's not what he used to be, and someday, long before his contract expires in 2017, he'll be traded for the same reason.
To read the rest of Buster Olney's blog on A-Rod, Tigers-Yankees and all the other moves, deals and decisions around MLB, click here (Insider)