A-Rod: I don't care about getting into HOF anymore
Nearly a decade after retiring, Alex Rodriguez remains one of baseball's most polarizing figures, particularly regarding his Hall of Fame candidacy.
Yet the former superstar shortstop now says he's made peace with the prospect of never having a plaque in Cooperstown.
"I have a life today that I didn't have for the first 40 years," Rodriguez recently told Jason Jones of The Athletic. "If I went to the Hall of Fame, in a weird way, I would be hollow inside. I would still be in a lot of pain.
"I would rather have what I have today, because it really helped me unlock a lot of the work that I needed to do."
Drafted first overall by the Seattle Mariners in 1993, Rodriguez helped redefine the shortstop position during the first half of his career with Seattle and the Texas Rangers before moving to third base after a trade to the New York Yankees.
The three-time AL MVP ranks fifth all time in home runs (696), fourth in RBIs (2,086), and eighth in runs scored (2,021). One of just four players in both the 3,000-hit and 600-homer clubs, Rodriguez led his league in home runs five times, had three 50-homer campaigns, and authored a rare 40-40 season in 1998.
However, Rodriguez's prickly off-field persona and use of performance-enhancing drugs have stalled his Hall of Fame candidacy. He first admitted to using PEDs in 2009, claiming he took steroids during his time with the Rangers from 2001-03. Rodriguez's subsequent involvement in the BioGenesis scandal led MLB to suspend him for the entire 2014 season.
Rodriguez has received limited support since debuting on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2022, topping out at 37.1% in 2024. As of Sunday, he's garnered 49.3% of the vote from 67 publicly revealed ballots in this year's cycle, per Ryan Thibodaux's Hall of Fame Tracker. Rodriguez's eligibility on the BBWAA ballot expires in 2030.
But even before the BioGenesis scandal, "A-Rod" was a controversial figure among his own team's fans primarily due to previous PED allegations and his outspoken personality. Describing himself as a "recovering narcissist," Rodriguez told The Athletic that he views his season-long suspension as a pivotal point in his life, one that pushed him to embrace therapy and accept accountability for his past behavior.
"The year (of) suspension gave me this time and the space and the privacy to really dig in and turn that lens inward," Rodriguez said. "Where I am today, I think, is 100% connected to the work that I did. So, if the Hall of Fame was a price, then, you know, that's on me."
Since retiring in 2016 after being released by the Yankees, Rodriguez has entered the business world and is now a part-owner of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx. The 50-year-old also remains involved in baseball, serving as a broadcaster with Fox.