The Yankees and Rodriguez announced on Sunday morning that the slugger will be released following Friday’s game against Tampa Bay, and will stay with the team as a special adviser and instructor. The decision was reached solely by owner Hal Steinbrenner and Rodriguez, without input from (and seemingly without any heads-up given to) Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi.

Rodriguez’s tenure with the Yankees has been nothing if not eventful. Twelve of his 22 years in the big leagues have been spent in New York, and over that time he won two of this three MVP awards and made the All-Star team like clockwork. His titanic effort in the 2009 playoffs almost singlehandedly delivered the Yankees a World Series title.

Yet whether it was PEDs, or Madonna or the Manhattan Madame, A-Rod always had a knack for getting just as much ink for events that took place off the field as those that took place on it. His journeys into the seemingly bizarre and aloof grow larger and larger in the mind as memories of his laughable dominance of the sport fade. Gone is the gangly but strong teenage shortstop who was drafted first overall by the Mariners who cracked the big leagues at 18, replaced by a burnt-out shell of a contentious superstar.

He should have been everything the game could have dreamed of. In a way, he was. A-Rod was handsome and fabulously talented. He was a Yankee, the best player on the best team. But for some reason, it never happened. A-Rod was never the face, yet he was never truly the heel, either. He wasn’t Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds, but he never found the magic elixir for post-steroid adoration like Nelson Cruz, Bartolo Colon or David Ortiz did, either.

The production on the field was never an issue. Through 1506 games in pinstripes, A-Rod has hit .284/.378/.523. 351 of his 696 home runs have come as a Yankee, along with passable defense at a position he was forced to learn because an inferior defender refused to vacate his native shortstop.

With that production came an inescapable combination of the ego that comes with being anointed an athletics savant at a young age and a hungry, gnawing insecurity. The talent, try as it might, could not hide the personal imperfections of Rodriguez. In a way, it exacerbated them. The insecurities and pressures from his fellow players and from himself drove him to the steroids. His desire for unimpeachable greatness and for victory drove him to seemingly mad decisions and acts. It turned the media against him. It turned the league, who for so long had needed a far-reaching and global star not named Griffey or Jeter, to hound and hunt him. It was Rodriguez who served the longest PED suspension in league history, one which was handed down outside of the parameters of the established policy for such matters.

It was all of this that made his straight-laced boy scout return to baseball in 2015 so surreal. The scandal and outrage never manifested outside of the spirited boos heard at every ballpark outside of the Bronx when he came to the plate. A year away from the game had changed A-Rod, or at least it had changed his public face. Any candid photos from out in public usually involved the Yankee DH going somewhere with his young daughters. Somehow, he managed to hit 33 home runs in the same season that he celebrated his 40th birthday.

That same success is nowhere to be found this year. A-Rod has struggled to a ghastly .216 TAv in 234 plate appearances. Lately, it hasn’t been a question of what pitches he’s getting fooled on, but what he’s actually been able to connect with. The once-mighty slugger has been cowed by even the most pedestrian of pitchers.

And so, on Friday, A-Rod will don the pinstripes for one last ride. He may very well start some of, if not all three games in Boston, in a desperate rush to hit four final home runs and end his career at the nice round figure of 700. Then, he’ll be gone.

At one point in time it would have been curious to think of a post-Rodriguez Yankees. Here was a man who so perfectly encapsulated what the mid-2000’s teams were about. It was Rodriguez, not Derek Jeter, who was villainous, high-octane, ‘roided-up and endlessly overpaid. Jeter had the smile and the public relations instincts of a seasoned politician. A-Rod slapped the ball out of Bronson Arroyo’s glove, dated Cameron Diaz and became a news item in the midst of a World Series that he wasn’t even involved with.

That changed in the Yankees’ very own Year Without A Santa Claus in 2014. The only source of drama in 2014 was whether or not Cashman could patch his parboiled roster into a playoff team (he couldn’t). And yet, when Rodriguez did return the next year… nothing happened.

From a dramatics standpoint, life without A-Rod has been a fact for two and a half years. There is no great heel to be found on the Yankees. For most Yankees fans, the biggest heels they have in their lives these days are Jacoby Ellsbury’s contract and Greg Bird’s labrum. A-Rod is more of a team grandfather and baseball sage than a skulking figure with a syringe in the shadows.

What a loss of A-Rod does represent, however, is the severing of the last connection to the mid-2000’s super-teams, and another nail in the coffin of the days of The Boss. Brett Gardner will now be the longest-tenured Yankee, and the final man on left on the team who played in the old Yankee Stadium. Rodriguez is the latest Yankee casualty to Father Time and Cashman’s ruthless culling of the older big-money Yankees. He has claimed Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran already, and he will claim CC Sabathia next year. Do not be mistaken, as the team will surely begin to buy again, perhaps as early as this winter. It’s hard to imagine Steinbrenner resisting the temptation of dressing Kenley Jansen in pinstripes. But for now, youth is the flavor du jour.

A-Rod’s feel-good redemption story ending may very well give way to the promotion of Aaron Judge, who will be one of the faces of the next generation of Yankees. Gary Sanchez is already in the Bronx, already starting behind the plate, and already throwing out runners left and right. The trade of Carlos Beltran and the vacation of Rodriguez’s 40-man roster spot opens the door for Judge to step in and taste the big leagues for the first time.

And Rodriguez will help guide Judge and his fellow prospects up to the Show. Once the game on Friday comes to an end, A-Rod will traverse the minor leagues and serve as a sage elder to the cream of the crop of Yankees prospects. Given how much he helped Didi Gregorius grow into being a full-time shortstop and hitter, it’s exciting to think of him working with young talents such as Jorge Mateo and Gleyber Torres. A-Rod is one of the greatest hitters to ever live, and has spent his entire adult life in baseball. He was still growing up when he transcended the superstar title, and has an exceptional mind for the game.

This is a role perfectly suited for him. There is little doubt that A-Rod will thrive on the other side of the game. He has given everything that he can as a player. And though the door is not completely closed on him suiting up one more time (he hasn’t officially retired as a player), the development of Alex Rodriguez: Elder Statesman will be amusing indeed to watch.

As recently as 2014, it would have been unthinkable to imagine that the Yankees would keep Rodriguez on in such a capacity once he was through with playing for them. Heel A-Rod is gone, blown away on the winds of change. In a way, though, he was never really there. A-Rod was never Lenny Dykstra, or Barry Bonds, or Ty Cobb. His problem was that he wasn’t David Ortiz. He couldn’t make the people love him and forget his transgressions against the game. He couldn’t stop himself from going back to that destructive crutch, and the game he had mastered even before he touched the drugs hated him for it, and rightfully so.

Citizen A-Rod will be something we’ve never seen before, because he hid so well during his year away from the game. Friday will be his last day as a player for the Yankees. Saturday will be the first day of the rest of his life. The next chapter in the life of Alex Rodriguez is about to begin, and with it begins the next chapter for the Yankees.

Photo: Andy Marlin / USA Today Sports

Normally, such late-inning affairs fall in favor of the Yankees. However, in an occurrence as rare as finding a unicorn, the Yankees bullpen was outpitched on Tuesday. Oakland’s relievers combined for 5 1/3 innings and only allowed one baserunner — a Chase Headley single in the ninth — but New York couldn’t push across the winning run.

Then in the 11th, with Johnny Barbato one strike away from sending the Yankees up to bat, Mark Canha drove in the game-winning run and the A’s held on to win 3-2 in New York’s first extra inning game of the season.

The Play — Mark Canha’s game-winning single (.336 WPA)

Johnny Barbato hadn’t given up a run all season before tonight, but in the 11th inning he ran into trouble. As Jed Lowrie stood on third with two outs, Mark Canha lined an 0-2 pitch off Didi Gregorius’s glove and into left field. Lowrie would ultimately score the winning run after Ryan Madson came in to shut the door for Oakland in the bottom of the 11th.

Top Performers

Athletics — Jed Lowrie, 4-for-5, 2B, RBI

Yankees — Alex Rodriguez, 2-for-5, RBI

Notes

— Michael Pineda started the game for the Yankees and pitched well, allowing two runs over six innings on 97 pitches. His day could have been better though, as the second run came on a triple that glanced off Brett Gardner’s glove in the sixth. Still, it’s a positive start for Pineda and hopefully he can continue the momentum into his next start and find some consistency.

— Starlin Castro batted in the No. 2 hole for the first time this season and went 1-for-5. Castro has had severe home/road splits so far this season, hitting much better in the hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium.

Starlin Castro likes Yankee Stadium.

In six home games: .480 (12-25), 2 HR, 8 RBIs.

In five road games: .118 AVG (2-17).

— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) April 19, 2016

— Carlos Beltran got another hit tonight, going 1-for-4 with an RBI and run scored. The veteran outfielder is now hitting .333/.340/.600 on the young season.

— In the ninth inning, after Didi Gregorius failed to lay down a bunt, pinch-runner and would-be-winning-run Jacoby Ellsbury was caught stealing second off a perfect throw from A’s catcher Steven Vogt. On primary day, most Yankees fans probably “Vogt-ed” for a mulligan. His defense earlier in the game probably saved the Yankees however, making a really nice backhand and throw right after Pineda exited.

That's some Gregorgeous defense by the Yankee shortstop. #Golden pic.twitter.com/TPfFbnZFZI

— Yankeesource (@YankeeSource) April 20, 2016

— Andrew Miller’s dominance out of the bullpen continued, although his consecutive strikeout streak ended. Miller had struck out eight straight batters before Marcus Seimen grounded out in the ninth.

The Highlight — Betances strikes out Khris Davis

Savage. pic.twitter.com/erIGKKwiAg

— Matthew Stucko (@MatthewStucko) April 20, 2016

Dellin Betances had a surprisingly rough outing tonight, but with the go-ahead run on second base he blew a fastball by Khris Davis and got through the 8th inning unscathed.

Next up

The Yankees continue their series against Oakland tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. Kendall Graveman (0-1, 2.38 ERA) will face Nathan Eovaldi (0-1, 6.94) on the mound. Graveman went 6 innings and allowed only one run on four hits in his last start, while Eovaldi gave up fo runs on seven hits in 6.2 innings, but struck out eight.

Rodriguez, 40, has two years remaining on his current contract, which pays him through the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The 14-time All-Star is owed $20 million per season in both 2016 and 2017, with a $1 million signing bonus included for each season.

At age 39 last season, Rodriguez batted .250 for the Yankees while belting 33 home runs and knocking in 86 RBI as well. The three-time MVP also appeared in 151 games for the Yankees, surpassing even the most generous of expectations.

While the news is unexpected, it’s not exactly a surprise. Rodriguez will turn 41 years old in July of this season, and has played over 2,700 career MLB games since his debut on July 8, 1994.

Rodriguez signed a 10-year extension worth $275 million with the Yankees in 2007, and will now play out the final two years of his contract before retiring after the 2017 season.

The former No. 1 overall pick currently has 687 career home runs, and will surely inch closer to Barry Bonds’ 756 career home run record over the course of his final two seasons in pinstripes.

Lead photo: Kim Klement/USA Today Sports

And, in 2014, that plan was executed. Beltran spent 76 games at DH and 32 games in right, but things didn’t go quite as general manager Brian Cashman had hoped. The 16-year veteran’s TAv dropped to .260, its lowest mark since 2000, and he drove in just 49 runs in 109 games.

Immediately, the deal was declared a mess. Good Lord, the Yankees have to roster this guy for two more seasons? He’s so old; his production will never return anywhere close to its All-Star levels. At least he’s not out being old in right field.

Suddenly, there was 37-year-old Carlos Beltran being old in right field.

When Alex Rodriguez returned from his season-long PED suspension, the team and its fans readied themselves for a tumultuous six months. He was entering his 21st big-league season, had clubbed just 45 home runs over the past three seasons, and  hadn’t played 140 games in nearly a decade. With Chase Headley and his shiny new contract occupying third base, the decision was made to try A-Rod out exclusively at DH, so he could make the most of his at-bats.

Against all odds, Rodriguez returned from a four-year hiatus like only Kanye West could. He ran out of the gate like a caged dog, hitting .278 in the first half of the season with 18 home runs and 51 RBIs, and took total control of the DH spot in the lineup.

The Beltran plan was crumpled up and tossed in the wastebin. He was reinserted into right field, and although he weirdly learned how to hit again, he was awful from a defensive standpoint. The three-time Gold Glove winner posted a -15.4 FRAA, which is Baseball Prospectus’ individual defensive metric that factors in things like ballparks and player handedness. 15.4 runs below average! Beltran single-handedly sunk the Yankees’ defensive efficiency to the 22nd worst mark in the league. With an uptick in offensive production, but a poor glove, was the deal still a mess? Based on the team’s new look, yes, it sort of was.

Now, if this were the ‘Millenium Yankees,’ which is some bland nickname for the early-2000s Yankees that I literally just created for the purpose of this article, this would be an entirely different story. Those teams didn’t care about defense, all they cared about was dingers. In a heartbeat, they’d take Beltran’s .280 TAv and 19 home runs in exchange for long, winding routes to fly balls. These aren’t your older brother’s Yankees, though. By locking up Headley, Gregorius and Ellsbury in the last couple of seasons, then adding Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks this winter, it’s clear the Yankees are attempting to build a young, glove-happy team.

Beltran will be gone after this season, and young Aaron Judge will take his place in right, but he’s still going to have to trot out to right field over 100 times this season with news that Rodriguez will continue as the team’s DH in 2016. For the time being, Rodriguez is inadvertently forcing the Yankees to lean on a player with a sub-zero defensive rating in one of their corner outfield spots. It won’t be a big deal one year from now, but Rodriguez may not be a big deal one year from now either. If the team is serious about contending in 2016, then this matters. It’s not on Beltran, and it’s not on Rodriguez, but the two of them have created a defensive issue for the Yankees.

Lead photo: Jonathan Dyer / USA Today Sports

Basically, because of bad contracts the Yankees have given out in the past, they are categorically unwilling to give out bad contracts, or contracts at all, in the present. In fact, the Yankees are probably the only team in baseball (except for maybe the Angels) that has so many payroll albatrosses we can argue over who holds the most damaging contract on the roster.

So without further ado, here are the candidates for worst contract on the Yankees.

Contestant 1 – Alex Rodriguez

Years remaining: Two
Dollars remaining: $40 million
WARP in 2015: 2.5
WARP over past three years: 3.2
Age: 40

Just a year ago, our first contestant not only looked like a frontrunner for worst contract on the Yankees, but also worst contract in baseball. But an emphatically solid .250/.356/.486 campaign boosted A-Rod’s deal from disastrous to merely inconvenient. In fact, it’s not far fetched to say that, based on the value of a win on the open market, Rodriguez’s play was actually worth his pay in 2015. Of course, A-Rod has two more years left on his deal, and given his age, it seems unlikely he’ll ever again be worth three wins. This contract may no longer be a catastrophe, but it’s still not one the Yankees are happy to be carrying.

Contestant 2 – Mark Teixeira

Years remaining: One
Dollars remaining: $22.5 million
WARP in 2015: 3.0
WARP over past three years: 3.3
Age: 35

Like A-Rod, our second contestant entered 2015 with a contract that appeared worthless, and like A-Rod, he had a nice year in 2015 and more or less earned his pay. Teixeira has been about as valuable over the past three years as Rodriguez (even though the latter missed all of 2014) but has two things going for him by comparison: He’s five years younger than A-Rod and is under contract for half as long. It’s not too hard to imagine Tex putting together another three-WAR campaign and riding out his Yankee deal as a productive player.

Contestant 3 – CC Sabathia

Years remaining: Two
Dollars remaining: $50 million
WARP in 2015: 0.4
WARP over past three years: 1.0
Age: 35

Things once looked so promising for our third contestant’s contract. Over the first four years on Sabathia’s seven-year $161 million deal, the left-hander averaged 32 starts and 226 innings a year, pitching to a 3.22 ERA (3.28 FIP). But a one-year extension and a dramatic decline in performance have made Sabathia a replacement player and his contract a massive burden. Unlike with our first two contestants, we have no reason to assume Sabathia will contribute any value over the remainder of his time in pinstripes. For all the fuss about A-Rod’s deal, Sabathia is actually a much worse player owed much more money.

Contestant 4 – Jacoby Ellsbury

Years remaining: Five
Dollars remaining: $110,714,285 (including $5 buyout)
WARP in 2015: 0.6
WARP over past three years: 8.4
Age: 32

While our first three contestants are all old guys whose monster contracts are almost done, Ellsbury is something scarier: a player with five years and a boatload of money remaining but rapidly diminishing value. The outfielder’s 2015 was about as bad as it gets, with injuries limiting him to 111 games and a meager .257/.318/.345 slash line mixing with uninspiring defense to produce 0.6 WARP. Five more years of that lack of production is scary to consider. On the other hand, Ellsbury has more upside than the other contestants. If he can return to his 2013-14 levels of output (3.9 WARP/year) for the next couple years this contract won’t look bad at all. It’s the worst-case scenario that makes this one so worrisome.

The winner

So who has the worst, most damaging contract on the Yankees? Well, Teixeira has only one year left, so he’s out, and A-Rod is owed less money than Sabathia and remains a better player. So our contest comes down to two very different players with two very different financial situations. Ellsbury is a slightly built center fielder with five years left on his deal and a high ceiling. Sabathia is a burly starting pitcher with two seasons remaining and little hope of ever again being a good player.

Here’s why Ellsbury’s contract is worse: Even if he bounces back from 2015 with a solid season or two, the end of his deal won’t go well. On a pure WARP-per-year basis Sabathia will likely be worse, but Ellsbury might submit three or four sub-average seasons while clogging the Yankees’ payroll for half a decade. When Teixeira, Rodriguez, Sabathia and others leave to make room for the next crop of expensive big-name stars, Ellsbury will still be around, most likely looking more like a bad investment by the day.

Lead photo: Andy Marlin/USA Today Sports

Alex Rodriguez is the active leader in games played. He has taken the field 2,719 times. He has stepped into the batter’s box 11,964 times, and reached base 38.2 percent of the times he was there. He is the active leader in hits, home runs and walks. He has rolled the boulder up the hill at the highest level since 1994. This spring, he will shoulder the load once again.

A-Rod is baseball’s Sisyphus. He is a once-mighty warrior reduced to a shell of his former self, ground to dust by the relentless march of time and by himself, and then reborn like a power-hitting positionless phoenix out of the ashes. Nobody expected A-Rod to be anything better than even replacement level last year. After a furlough of a year and a half, A-Rod turned in a full season and 2.5 WARP while celebrating his 40^th birthday.

Rodriguez has two years and $20 million left on his contract. He will be the team’s designated hitter as long as his body allows it, and possibly a little bit beyond that point too. He, CC Sabathia and Brett Gardner will be the final members of the 2009 World Series team left in pinstripes when he enters his final year with the team. A-Rod will also be the final member of my childhood Yankees to depart.

—

I was a sophomore in high school when the Yankees beat the Phillies and won it all. The season is a bit of a blur in my mind. It was a merging of the old (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, A-Rod) and the new (Sabathia, Mark Teixeira) to devastating effect. The Sabathia and Teixeira signings, as well as the trade for Nick Swisher, put a new jolt of energy into the team. There was a new stadium, a new ace, and a new first baseman. The Yankees still had the same closer, the same shortstop, the same closer, the same Godzilla, the same A-Rod. But this was an A-Rod marred by injuries and fan outrage over a perceived lack of clutch performance. It was an A-Rod that would eventually carry the Yankees to the World Series almost entirely by himself.

He was in a truly strange position in my mind. I first paid attention to baseball around 2000. The Yankees were winning championships with homegrown talent and a dash of Martinez, O’Neill and Clemens. As someone who grew up in the tri-state area, you had to throw a broken bat at Mike Piazza to be reviled by kids my age. The Yankees were fun and cool, led by a wholesome posterboy in Jeter that could do no wrong. There were no gift baskets yet, just good Yankee baseball, and all was well. Then Aaron Boone was a fool and hurt himself playing basketball, and all bets were off. The Rocket was the first big heel that the Yankees acquired during the dynasty years around the turn of the century. But he was nothing compared to the sheer disdain that was conjured up by A-Rod.

A-Rod, who had a fling with Madonna and with the Manhattan Madam. A-Rod, who alienated Jeter. A-Rod, who was embroiled in a steroid scandal and opted out of his contract while the World Series was on. A-Rod, who had to deny that he was involved in illegal underground poker games. A-Rod, who so infamously waltzed into Mike Francesa’s studio after blowing up at an MLB hearing. A-Rod, who developed a reputation as being woefully unclutch. A-Rod, who Mark Wahlberg should have shot instead of Jeter. Clemens may have been a steroid-fueled hothead who spirited away Andy Pettitte to Houston, but at least he wasn’t A-Rod.

—

Though A-Rod, Sabathia, Teixiera and Gardner were on that 2009 team, A-Rod has been in New York far longer. He’s been a constant figure on the Yankees for almost all of my baseball-watching life. He’s the final link to my childhood on the team, and he will be the link between three versions of the Yankees.

A-Rod’s first year in the Bronx coincided with the beginning what I like to think of as “The Gary Sheffield Yankees.” Though Sheffield only played in the Bronx from 2004-06, he was the defining figure of the period from 2004-08 in my young brain. Sheffield was old, and he missed a lot of time in his third year. This was the era of Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson; of Carl Pavano and Javier Vazquez. Stars on the decline passed through the Bronx like travelers on the D train. Though the teams won, there was a palpably odd feel to everything. The core of Jeter, Rivera, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada and Petitte (minus his Clemens-organized field trip to Houston) was largely still intact, and Hideki Matsui was loads of fun, but it was hard to get attached to any of the outsiders. Chein-Ming Wang’s injury, Kei Igawa’s crash and burn, the Joba Rules and the trials and tribulations of Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes all imposed a feeling that the team could only grow through external methods. Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera were the only ones that offered a glimmer of hope.

Rodriguez won two MVP awards during this time. He was utterly brilliant. It may have been because I was young and not very cognizant of the game beyond New York, and because of my father’s disdain for him, but I never truly realized just how titanic A-Rod was. I took him for granted because I didn’t have anything to compare him to. He laid waste to the big leagues as he always had, and the Yankees routinely made the playoffs.

Until they didn’t. The Yankees failed to reach the postseason in 2008, Joe Torre was fired, and the next age of Yankees baseball, which I mentally refer to as “The CC Sabathia Era,” began. A-Rod has persevered through that era, suspension and all. Between Jeter’s retirement, A-Rod’s return and the new youth movement, 2015 is the beginning of something new. The Yankees are beginning to grow themselves from the inside again. Luis Severino, Greg Bird and more are the beginning of the next wave of youth from the farm.

 —

What Rodriguez did in 2015 was nothing short of a miracle, but it was also the greatest trick the man so many see as baseball’s devil ever pulled. In one fell swoop, A-Rod returned to the field, got his 3000^th hit, and made New York love him. It can be argued that Rodriguez was never truly loved by the city until last season. Everybody loves an underdog. The only thing that’s easier to love than an underdog story is a redemption story. The media loved him. New York loved him. My dad didn’t hate him anymore.

A-Rod didn’t simply start slugging again. He became the true face of the team, with no Jeter to stop him. This will only be his team for so long, as someone like Greg Bird, Bryce Harper or Aaron Judge will take up the mantle. But for now, it is none other than baseball’s biggest heel that holds the honor.

2016 will mark the 13^th year that A-Rod has been a Yankee. His story is in many ways the story of the franchise over that time. Just as his career has been rebooted, so too has the Yankee method of team-building. It’s entirely possible that we don’t see the Yankees go on a massive free agent binge until the Great Bryce Harper Hunt^TM that’s coming to a theater near you in 2018. A-Rod will be gone by then, and that’s when Harper will likely become the player that steers the ship through the various future iterations of the team. A-Rod has had Yankee teammates that range from John Olerud to Jacob Lindgren. He was teammates with Goose Gossage in Seattle, a man that began his career in 1972.

A-Rod’s story is the story of the Yankees, and of baseball in the 21^st century. For better or for worse, he is the defining figure of the franchise for the duration of his tenure in pinstripes. The Yankees are timeless and will carry on until the heat death of the universe. Yet for me, it’s been Alex Rodriguez that has defined the team. He is the last vestige of a bygone era, a baseball coelacanth. It’s only fitting that he will be the last to leave.

Lead photo: Noah K. Murray/USA Today Sports

Yes, the Yankees are going to be in the race next year.  Their off-season hasn’t quite signaled that they’re in ‘win now’ mode, but they do hope their new acquisitions will make significant contributions next year.  Yet despite their intentions to win in 2016, the organization’s future plans remain unclear.  What does the Yankees’ future hold after this season?  No massive roster overhaul has happened yet, but some moves have the undertones of an impending retooling period.

For years, the Yankees have been considered an ‘old team.’  While their roster age technically isn’t old—2015’s team ranked 15^th in the league at 27.1 years of age—their reputation holds some truth.  This is because the majority of the team’s biggest contributors are veterans.  Of the eighteen players with more than one win above replacement, ten of them are over 30, and nine are over 31.  Even more surprisingly, just one hitter under 31—Didi Gregorious—was worth more than a win above replacement.  For contrast, here is the same data for each AL East team.

While the Yankees are perfectly average in terms of total roster age, weighing their age based on performance shows that they’re a very top-heavy team; the majority of their production comes from older players.  When looking past 2016, the issue of graying players really starts to emerge. While some fans may be looking forward to the day Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia and Carlos Beltran are no longer on the team’s payroll, it would be foolish to push aside the value that these players bring. Grizzled veterans have long been the foundation of the Yankees, and once they’re gone, they will be sorely missed.

The sheer amount of value leaving the team in the near future is hard to comprehend, and even harder to replace. The farm system is only so deep, and the next two free agent classes are projected to be very thin.  To start, Mark Teixiera will be off the roster next season.  Sure, it’ll be nice to have $23 million laying around, but Teixeira was the most valuable Yankee last year in terms of WAR, earning a 3.8 mark, despite playing in just under 70% of the team’s games. Carlos Beltran and his $15 million will also be off the books after this season, and while he’s a zero in the outfield, he was the best bat in the lineup in the second half, leading the team with a 169 wRC+. Coming off the payroll after the 2017 year will be CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez.  Sabathia won’t be missed, but Rodriguez was the third-best bat on the team with a 129 wRC+, and prior to his late-season collapse he was the best hitter on the club. His 144 wRC+ led the team and was the seventh-highest in the American League.

There are two important things to note here. First is the 8.7 WAR (from last year) that will be absent from the roster. That’s 49% of all of last year’s value, gone.  That said, there’s also the salary relief and the extra spending money that Yankees will gain. In the short term, it will be quite hard to compete; simply building through the 2016 and 2017 free agent classes isn’t a feasible idea. Success from prospects can certainly ease the losses, but the Yankees lack impact players that are close to the majors.  According to Baseball Prospectus’ top-10 Yankees prospects, just three players that are projected to be starters in their prime will be big-league ready by the 2017 season.  In addition, it can sometimes take several years for prospects to adjust and reach their ceiling. The farm system has some serious talent, but much of it won’t be ready when veterans start leaving the team.

Like it or not, there’s a good chance the Yankees will use the 2016 and 2017 seasons to rebuild.  On the bright side, the Yankees will shed over $41 million from their payroll next winter, and after the 2017 season, another $46 million will mercifully be gone.

It seems that the Yankees are setting up for an acquisition period in 2018.  At that point, most of the Yankees’ best prospects—like Luis Severino, Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez, and Aaron Judge—will be approaching their prime, while a lot of the expensive veterans will depart.  The Yankees won’t be overly young, but at the same time they won’t be too top heavy.  Although some older players like Jacoby Ellsbury will likely still be around and may be overpaid, the roster will be relatively cost-effective. Analysts are already raving over what 2018’s free agent class could be—Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Josh Donaldson, Andrew McCutchen, A.J. Pollock, Dee Gordon, Jose Fernandez, Dallas Keuchel, Matt Harvey, Garrett Richards, Trevor Rosenthal, Craig Kimbrel, David Robertson, Michael Brantley, Adam Jones, and Shelby Miller are all set to hit the market, and David Price, Jason Heyward and Clayton Kershaw would be available should they exercise their optout clauses.

This culmination of events could be the lead-up to the most legendary Yankees off-season of all-time, with a cheap roster, an open wallet, and tons of talent. It’s easy to start gushing about a free agent class that’s three years away, but at the same time, Yankee fans can’t forget about what will occur before then.  Nothing’s happened yet to indicate a retool, but the Yankees did come very close to dealing Andrew Miller for prospects and, despite obvious needs, have refused to sign players long term deals in free agency.  It’s not worth panicking over yet, but Yankee fans should keep in mind that this may be their last season as serious contenders until 2018.

Lead photo: Adam Hunger/USA Today Sports

Once again, the Yankees find themselves in a nebulous space before the inception of the regular season. The AL East is not as wide open as it seemed to be at the beginning of the 2015 season. The Rays are decidedly dead for the time being, and the Orioles currently have a pitching staff held together with scotch tape and Ubaldo Jimenez. The Blue Jays will still have their wrecking crew lineup, and the Red Sox have a revamped bullpen to go along with their shiny new David Price.

The Yankees are somewhere in the middle. They’ve added an elite reliever, a good young outfielder, and a young second baseman. Yet they’re still very old, and still own the most fragile starting rotation in the division. Many of the things that went wrong for the 2015 Yankees can once again go wrong for the 2016 Yankees, and in dramatic fashion. However, what we’ve witnessed thus far has been the continuation of a slow but steady youth movement that’s been long overdue for New York. The Yankees could win the division as easily as they could self-immolate in a fantastic display of Murphy’s Law operating on a $200 million budget.

The 2016 season will operate as a crossroads of sorts. It will be the final year of Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran, and only the baseball gods know whether or not Alex Rodriguez will be able to survive a second season back unscathed. More and more products of a suddenly bountiful farm system will graduate, and the very essence of the team will begin to change. What follows are things to watch for on this year’s version of the Bronx Bombers.

• Young Messers Severino and Bird: Luis Severino will be undertaking his first full season of big-league ball. After holding opposing hitters to a 2.89 ERA (3.82 DRA) in just over 60 innings of work, how he handles a second swing through the league will be incredibly important. Severino was arguably the Yankees’ best starter down the stretch, and they’ll need him to be excellent once more if they truly have designs on contending. Meanwhile, Greg Bird won’t even begin the season in the Bronx, but instead down at Scranton. There’s simply no room for him to get regular plate appearances with both Teixeira and A-Rod healthy, so he’ll wait until one of them is injured to come up. Bird is almost certainly the Yankees’ first baseman of the future, and a second strong run at big-league pitching will show whether or not his strikeout concerns will hold him back from being an offensive cornerstone.
• The Labors of Alex Rodriguez: The most fascinating man in New York had a year for the ages in terms of pure story. While I could wax poetic about A-Rod for eons, and probably will, what’s important here is that the Yankees are gambling on their resident Methuselah to supply the dingers once again. Being restricted to a DH role is good for A-Rod’s sustainability, but he can only cheat death for so long. Even just last year, he faded in the late months of the season. He will require more days off, and will likely find himself on the business end of the disabled list at some point. But it’s A-Rod that will need to do much of the heavy lifting for the Yankees this year, and that’s a little scary.
• The Other Four Guys: We know that the monstrous Aroldis Chapman/Andrew Miller/Dellin Betances trio is unfair and likely part of a video game that seeped into the real world in a strange reversal of Tron. There’s no debate to be had there. However, there are still four other jobs open in that bullpen. Two of them likely belong to Chasen Shreve and Jacob Lindgren, meaning that the Yankees will roll out with four lefty relievers. One more spot is likely Bryan Mitchell’s, as he’ll be doing the Adam Warren super-swingman job. The seventh spot probably once again belongs to the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Frequent Flyer Club again, meaning it’ll be filled by the various up-and-down Triple-A relief arms. Is that good enough? Are the Yankees too left-handed? We know that Chapman and Miller make short work of any who dare face them, and Shreve was good at getting guys out regardless of which box they stood in (until he couldn’t get anybody out). Lindgren is supposedly in that same mold. Only time will tell, but the middle relievers could be just as good as the menacing figures lurking in the late innings.
• The Trade Deadline: Brian Cashman could be in two very different positions once that most magical part of the summer comes to town. The Yankees could either need a few more pieces to put them over the top, or they could be the New York Post’s favorite punching bag every single morning. Should the first scenario come to pass, it will be quite fascinating to see just how crazy he’s willing to get. If the Bronx is burning, players such as Chase Headley, Brett Gardner (if he hasn’t already been traded), and Andrew Miller could become quite tantalizing targets for the shrewd shopper. Neither scenario would be particularly surprising, of course, which makes the coming season all the more anticipated.

I could go on and on about what to look for. However, we here at BP Bronx need topics to write about, and there’s only so much I can say before your eyes glaze over and you drift into a dream of reaching over Zack Hample’s shoulder to catch a home run ball. I can’t say I blame you.

The Yankees are not the Blue Jays, with their mortar-launching offense. They aren’t the Cubs and their unyielding supply of prospects, nor are they the Red Sox with their Mookie Betts. But for the first time in what feels like a lifetime, the Yankees may very well be genuinely interesting. That counts for something, and nobody really wants to be the Red Sox anyway. We’re going to take you all the way to Opening Day here at BP Bronx, and then we’ll take you through the end of the season. There’s a lot to write about, and a lot to dream about. There’s a lot of baseball to watch. Soon enough, we’ll have just that back in our lives.

Baseball.

Lead photo courtesy of Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

The star power in that 2009 Yankees group leads to an important question: Could that be the best infield of all time? ESPN’s Buster Olney thinks it’s up there—in 2013, he ranked that Yankees group the second-greatest infield ever, behind only the 1976 Reds. The New York Daily News explored the question back in September 2009, quoting Jim Palmer as saying the Tex-Cano-Jeter-Rodriguez quartet belonged in the conversation for best infield in history.

So I decided to compare the total WARP of the four 2009 Yankees infielders with that of other notable infields. Alas, the Big Red Machine core of Perez, Morgan, Concepcion, and Rose topped the ’09 Yanks in both 1975 and 1976. The Philadelphia Athletics’ “$100,000 infield” had the Bombers beat in 1910, 1912, 1913 and 1914.* So did the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance Cubs in 1906.* And the 1999 Mets. But the ’09 Yankees did have the best infield since… actually they didn’t even have the best infield in their division that season, bested by the Rays. But they did form the top Yankees infield since… no actually the ’07 team, despite playing Doug Mientkiewicz at first base, edged the ’09 squad thanks to a huge year from A-Rod.

*Using Baseball-Reference WAR because WARP doesn’t go back that far

Now I found myself confronting defeat. It was clear the 2009 Yankees were not quite as special as I had remembered. Here’s a partial list of infields I tabulated before giving up.

So I tried moving the goalposts. Since none of the ’09 Yankee infielders graded out particularly well on defense that year, I looked at offense-only metrics. Suddenly they scoot past the ’75 Reds, a couple of the A’s teams and the defensive-focused ’99 Mets. But even in the offense-only category, it’s hard to argue with stats that the ’09 Yanks are in the conversation for best infield of all-time. They’re still behind by the ’76 Reds, several “$100,000 infield” squads, and even those ’07 Yankees.

But even though value stats don’t quite back up my belief that the Yankees infield in 2009 was the greatest of all-time or even the best-hitting of all time, it might not be wrong to say that year (and the following three as well) the Yankees had the best infielders of any team ever.

Because check out what happens when we add together the total career WARP and bWAR of notable groups of starting infielders:

Looking at career value, that Yankees group trails the Big Red Machine in WARP, whose formula is extremely harsh on Jeter and Teixeira. But three of the four Yanks are still playing, and Cano alone could make up the remaining 11 wins over the rest of his career. Per WARP, the 2009-12 Yankees will have the most prolific infield ever by 2017.

And according to bWAR, the contest is already over. The title-winning Yankees quartet tops the mid-70s Reds (Perez, Morgan, Concepcion, Rose) early-10s A’s (McInnis, Collins, Barry, Baker), late-00s Cubs (Chance, Tinker, Evers, Steinfeldt), late-90s Orioles (Palmeiro, Alomar, Ripken, Sufhoff/Bordick), and turn-of-the-century Indians (Thome, Alomar, Vizquel, Fryman).

I’ve racked my brain for other contenders but can’t come up with any. The ’94-95 Indians would have been up there if Eddie Murray had played first as much as he DHed. The Whitaker/Trammell Tigers teams had solid corner infielders but never incredible ones. The Jackie Robinson Dodgers were missing a third baseman. Some strong duos (Bagwell and Biggio, Ripken and Murray, Greenberg and Gehringer) never fit into strong quartets.

I did find one infield, however, that beats the 2009-12 Yankees in total career value: the 2008 Yankees. That team also had Cano, Jeter and Rodriguez, but manning first base was Jason Giambi, who out-WARPs Teixeira 51.5-38.5. So according to WARP, the most talented infield in baseball history was not the group that led the Yankees to a World Series title while inspiring breathless comparisons to the Big Red Machine, but rather the squad that produced the franchise’s first non-playoff season in more than a decade.

So can we proclaim the 2008 Yankees, in a shocking upset, the best infield of all-time? Nope. Career value doesn’t totally override who the players were at that moment, and in 2008 Giambi was past-prime, Cano had the worst year of his career, and Jeter and Rodriguez were sub-standard as well.

What we can claim, after all the manipulation of stats and changing of definitions, is what I already knew going in: The 2009 Yankees infield was pretty special, whether it was the best of all-time or not.

Lead photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

However, despite the massive infusion of fresh blood Major League Baseball has done a very poor job of marketing its new stars. Moreover, baseball fandom is more predicated on nostalgia than any other sport. As a result, the two most recognizable names in the major leagues right now are likely Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz.

Both Rodriguez and Ortiz have had tremendous careers and deserve the attention they get, but it seems bizarre that the most pop-culture relevant players in the game are in their forties. During a golden age of emerging stars the public remains fixated on aged one-dimensional sluggers. It is remarkable that the pair has remained productive at the plate long into their supposed decline years, but they are just a couple of full-time designated hitters clinging to their one remaining skill, shoehorned into the only position in the major leagues they are capable of filing.

However, once in a very long while necessity forces them out of the DH role and into the field like mere mortals. It is this rare development I want to discuss today. Last season, the New York Yankees tried A-Rod at first base for the first time in an effort to create some additional flexibility for the slugger. He played all of 9.2 innings at the position, but it got me thinking, is he already a better bet defensively at first base than the ancient full-time DH in Boston?

Ortiz has a clear advantage when it comes to experience, but not by as much as one might think. Since breaking into the league in 1997 he’s only played 277 games at the position, and he hasn’t played more than 10 in any season since 2004. While he has also logged reps at the minor-league level, Ortiz was specifically selected out of playing first base at an early age. He’s more familiar with a first baseman’s glove, but he was also identified as being a poor defender back in his mid-twenties when he was presumably more athletic.

The video on Ortiz’s glovework is illuminating in its scarcity. Papi played only 60 innings in the field in 2015, but the best highlight is probably this catch off the bat of Ben Revere.

Many human beings who are not professional baseball players are capable of catching objects flying in their direction, but this is what Ortiz specializes in. Almost all video of him playing first base entails him catching a ball thrown to him. That’s OK because by and large that’s what first basemen do.

He did have one error this year, but it was his first since 2010 in spot duty, so it’s fair to describe him as reliable enough. Statistically speaking DRS has him at -7 for his career and UZR has him at -4.4 per 1500 innings. Not that bad, although he did play in the field more when he was younger so his true talent at this point is probably quite a bit lower. Even so, in this matchup he’s the high-floor option.

Rodriguez, on the other hand is a little more interesting. Even though he’s been slowed by age fundamentally he’s a good athlete and he used to be a defensive asset at much more difficult positions. That gives him upside.

The downside is his lack of experience. A-Rod played 9.2 innings of first base during the regular season and nine during spring training and that’s probably it for his entire life. When he was younger putting him at first would have been a ridiculous notion. When he was given the chance there were a few hiccups, such as a dropped ball in a Grapefruit League game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He also failed to hold onto a ball from Didi Gregorius recording his first error at the position in his only major-league start there.

In that game he also took his toe off the bag leading to an error for Chase Headley in a call that was challenged and overturned.

These are some nasty rookie mistakes, but there is room for growth as not only does he move and throw the ball well for a first baseman, he’s demonstrated solid scooping form.

Defensive metrics mean almost literally nothing in a 9.2 inning sample but for the heck of it DRS had A-Rod at -1 and UZR had had him at a clean 0 with his range score cancelling out the error he made.

So, what’s the verdict? I hope you’re prepared for a cop out.

If you were playing Game 7 of the World Series tomorrow you’d want Ortiz at first. It’s a position he knows well and he’ll respond to plays instinctively,  catch the ball and probably won’t kill you with some kind of mental mistake. It’s an ugly play, but it’s the safe play.

If you were going to prep one in the offseason to be your first baseman all year Rodriguez is the clear choice. He’s far more athletic and he could cut down on his mistakes with more practice.

Choose Papi for today and take A-Rod for the future. That’s not a statement that comes up a lot when comparing two 40-year-olds.

(Photo: Adam Hunger-USA Today Sports)