Alex Rodriguez to Hal Steinbrenner: "I'd love to spend the rest of my life as a Yankee"
To say that Alex Rodriguez will be a busy man in 2018 would be quite an understatement. In addition to being a father and the head of A-Rod Corp, he will be taking over for Aaron Boone at third base on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball when the season kicks off, and will be a postseason panelist for Fox once again come October.
But that's not all. He is back on the Yankees' payroll as a special advisor to Brian Cashman. A-Rod returned to the team on Monday when he arrived at camp to work with the players who remain with the Big League club. In an interview with reporters during the Yankees' game Monday night, A-Rod revealed that -- if it were up to him -- he'd never have to take the pinstripes off.
"I told Hal that I'd love to spend the rest of my life as a Yankee," A-Rod said. "I love it here, and I'm grateful for what they did for me in 2014, giving me an opportunity to get back into baseball. I'm happy to be back, and to see so much talent. It's breathtaking."
So what exactly does a special advisor do come the regular season? Well, that's up to the head honcho. No matter what the task, A-Rod is happy to help.
"What I'd like to do is exactly what I did last year, which is just spend time with guys publicly and privately, on the field and off, but I'm going to do whatever Hal wants me to do," he said. "I had some brief but great talks with Hal and Brian Cashman, and the three of us have identical passion and respect for what this group has the chance to do."
No stranger to home runs, having hit 696 of his own over a 22-year career, A-Rod knows that this Yankees' lineup is something special.
"This lineup has an opportunity to be record-breaking, and put up numbers we haven't seen in a really long time," he said. "I don't know what the lineup will be, so you need to see how all nine flow together, because there's an energy and a cadence about an offense, but I can't remember a time seeing this kind of talent in a lineup one through nine in a long time."
It's not all about teaching the game for A-Rod either. He wants to mentor the younger guys who may not be used to the bright lights of the Big Apple.
"There's always a place for helping players get adjusted to New York. That's one thing, no matter which generation you're talking about, that is challenging, and it was probably the most challenging thing I ever had to do," A-Rod said. "Coming from a secondary or tertiary market to the number one market in the world is something that is very difficult, and the more support staff you can have to help our players, the better."
As for his announcing duties, don't expect any bias when he has to call a Yankees' game.
"They pay me to talk about the what and the why, and I plan on doing that objectively and fairly."