Alex Rodriguez was on the call for Sunday night’s Red Sox-Yankees game. And once again, he offered no insight or entertainment.
The Yankees bested the Red Sox 9-1 in a sleepy affair, but the only thing worse than watching the Red Sox get shut down by the mediocre Jameson Taillon was A-Rod’s dreadful commentary. He is banal, boring and usually incorrect.
It is the triple crown of bad broadcasting.
One of the better examples of A-Rod’s inability to say anything remotely useful came in the top of the sixth inning, when Matt Vasgersian asked the three-time MVP whether he thought Rafael Devers checked his swing on a fastball from Chad Greene that just missed the upper half of the plate.
A-Rod pleaded the fifth.
“As a hitter, I would say I checked it,” Rodriguez pointed out. “As a pitcher, you want that.”
Thank you.
As sports fans, we are unfortunately used to national analysts offering cliches and stating the obvious. For years, Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan were the lead MLB analysts for Fox and ESPN.
And you wonder why baseball has trouble attracting millennials.
But what makes Rodriguez unique from other bad broadcasters is his ability to insult the viewer in multiple ways. Take his trade proposals for the Yankees in the top of the seventh, for example. After dismissing Joey Gallo — A-Rod wanted to know where the Yankees would play him, apparently unaware of their depth crisis in the outfield — Rodriguez threw out three potential targets: José Ramirez, a “Christian Yelich-type,” and Ramon Laureano.
Why don’t the Yankees put together a deal for Shohei Ohtani while they’re at it?
“Yelich, obviously is not going to be available,” Rodriguez said. “But someone like that.”
Then he compared Laureano to a “young Melky Cabrera,” who was nothing more than a fourth outfielder early in his career.
An equal opportunity offender, A-Rod also offered ridiculous commentary about the Red Sox. He named Trot Nixon as a comp for Jarren Duran because … they’re both left-handed?
“Little young Trot Nixon, maybe too much of a stretch,” Rodriguez said.
While Nixon enjoyed a productive first half of his career, he is very different player than Duran. For starters, Nixon didn’t have any speed, as Vasgersian pointed out.
But at least A-Rod named an actual person when listening comparisons for Duran. Earlier in the night, he said Alex Verdugo has the energy of a “UFC fighter,” before informing us Red Sox personnel believe he is a true “baseball player.”
Good to know!
Steroids aside, A-Rod is one of the greatest players of all-time. Yet, he seems unwilling or unable to share any knowledge he’s acquired over his nearly three decades in baseball.
Say what you want about him, but he must have more interesting observations than informing us it’s easier to make the transition from starter to reliever than reliever to starter.
Or maybe not. Either way, ESPN has a problem in its Sunday night booth.