Alex Rodriguez has one of the more complicated legacies in MLB history as one of the faces of the league’s steroid era. Still, he did record 696 career home runs, a number that only four other players have reached.
The former third baseman spent the majority of his career with the Yankees, totaling 351 home runs in 12 seasons for New York. However, perhaps because Rodriguez was once suspended 162 games for taking performance-enhancing drugs, the Yankees have not retired his number.
Rodriguez last played in the 2016 season, and in 2021, New York gave Rodriguez’s No. 13 away for the first time since his retirement. The recipient was outfielder Joey Gallo, and Rodriguez admitted that the move upset him.
“It did not make me happy,” Rodriguez said in a Thursday interview on the Evan & Tiki show on WFAN-AM in New York.
Despite his off-the-field issues, Rodriguez did help the Yankees to a World Series championship in 2009, the last time New York won it all. That title came after Rodriguez admitted to taking PEDs the first time, but before his eventual yearlong suspension in 2014.
The Fox MLB analyst said he believes his criticisms of the Yankees on TV “doesn’t help” his case to have the number retired. Yet he would like to be immortalized among the Yankees greats in Monument Park.
“Yeah, of course it bothers me,” Rodriguez said. “It’s less about bother, but of course it would be nice to be recognized in one of the coolest places to be in Yankee history, but that’s not my decision.”
The Yankees have retired an MLB-high 22 numbers, honoring 24 players. It remains to be seen whether Rodriguez will join other Yankees greats in Monument Park.