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The New York Yankees are having a changing of the guard. It all began a few weeks ago when the New York Yankees traded Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs and since then have traded many players such as Andrew Miller, Ivan Nova, and Carlos Beltran. Then in the weeks after the deadline, Mark Teixeira announced he was going to retire after the season and now another name is added to that list.

It was announced last night that the Alex Rodriguez will be holding a press conference this morning to make a major announcement. However, no one knew what the announcement was as the rumors were he would be retiring or getting released. It was announced that he is indeed retiring and unlike when Mark Teixeira announced his retirement would be in effect at the end of the season, Alex Rodriguez’s retirement is effective as of Friday, August 12th. After the game, he will be unconditionally released from his contract and is pretty much a free agent.

Jack Curry of the YES Network had a great line on the announcement when he made a mention how he found it surprising how no one outside Hal or Alex knew about the announcement. By him announcing his retirement, he is putting a close to a roller coaster 22-year career that had many ups and downs. As of right now, he has 696 homers, 2,084 runs batted in, and has a stat line of .295/.380/.550 over his career. He is also a 14 time All-Star, 3 time MVP, 2 time Gold Glove winner, 16th in Wins Above Replacement (WAR), 12,198 plate appearances which are most among active players, 10,557 at- bats which are also most among active players, and has one World Series ring with the 2009 Yankees.

While Alex has caused many headaches for the Yankees and has put them through the ringer a few times. He still is a huge asset to that team and is someone that will be missed. If it wasn’t for the numbers he had during the 2009 World Series run, then the Yankees probably don’t make it to the World Series. What will be interesting to see now is does Alex make it to the Hall of Fame, he has the numbers to back it up but  unfortunately, he has the steroid bug going over his head. But for right now, he is a free agent as of Friday and can choose to do what he wants to do.