Stop me when you’ve heard this before: Alex Rodriguez signs a multi-year contract.
On Tuesday, FOX Sports announced that A-Rod will be joining their network as a full-time analyst for the upcoming 2017 season.
Welcome back, @AROD!
Alex Rodriguez joins @foxsports as a full-time analyst: https://t.co/iHrFshgdiZ
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 7, 2017
From the press release: New York – Fresh off working as a guest studio analyst during FOX Sports’ coverage of Major League Baseball’s historic postseason run in 2016, World Series Champion and three-time American League Most Valuable Player, Alex Rodriguez, joins FOX Sports, as a full-time analyst. The announcement of Rodriguez’s multi-year deal with the network was made today by John Entz, President of Production & Executive Producer, FOX Sports.
In addition to reprising his role as FOX MLB studio analyst, Rodriguez expands his broadcasting responsibilities to serve as a game analyst for select FOX MLB SATURDAY telecasts as well as feature reporter for FOX’s MLB pregame coverage and FS1 studio show MLB WHIPAROUND.
Of all the things A-Rod has done on and off the field over the past two years, nothing was more positively received than his work on FOX during the 2015 and 2016 MLB postseasons. Last October I wrote that A-Rod’s future is on TV because of his seemingly natural ability to analyze the game. For the first time in a long time, A-Rod felt comfortable in what he was doing. He had an amusing and enjoyable — if not sometimes awkward — chemistry with his co-hosts, especially Pete Rose.
Since last fall, there have been a number of rumors of what’s next for A-Rod. As the possibility of him playing again dwindled, we found out that CNBC is giving A-Rod his own TV pilot called Back in the Game. Additionally, there were reports that A-Rod might join the YES Network, but with this FOX Sports announcement it is unclear if we will see Alex do other media work.
One thing I’m looking forward to is A-Rod on the Saturday FOX broadcasts, which sometimes lack punch in the middle of the summer. Alex has always been a baseball junkie, unlike his counterpart Derek Jeter, who has approached retired life much more privately.
It would not surprise me to see A-Rod take advantage of every public-facing opportunity he can. Plenty of analysts double-dip; Al Leiter is a studio analyst for MLB Network as well as an occasional in-game analyst on YES, for example. With the FOX and potential CNBC gigs, however, A-Rod will be pretty busy.
And let’s not forget about AROD CORP. Those baseballs don’t sign themselves.
.@AROD building quite the post-playing resume:
-CEO
-Special instructor
-TV analyst
-(Future) Reality TV show host
-Instagram maven— Andrew (@Andrew_Rotondi) March 7, 2017
