ESPN - Marchand: It's still pretty unfathomable that A-Rod will enter this year's camp as the beloved leader of the Yankees. He was a pariah 365 days ago. The Yankees did not want him, but still owed him $60 million-plus so they had to keep him. It appeared to me that it was going to be a 24-plus-one situation. Instead, A-Rod said the right things and, most importantly for his good graces with the team and many of its fans, he hit.
A-Rod also acted differently. He was much more welcoming and friendly than in the past. Could it have been an act? We did see this once before, during "PED Redemption Tour No. 1" in 2009, which was the eve of his involvement with Tony Bosch and his Biogenesis friends.
Matthews: He did act differently, but we have to remember he was on his best behavior for a number of reasons. He was trying to court the Yankees' front office, his teammates, the fans, the media, and probably most of all, new commissioner Rob Manfred, who had prosecuted MLB's case against him in the Biogenesis affair. So while he was different, I'll reserve judgment on whether A-Rod is truly a changed man until we see his demeanor this season.
Marchand: I agree. The other thing that can't be ruled out is how the heck did he do it last year? I mean, two hip surgeries, his 40th birthday and basically two years of inactivity and A-Rod was great for three-quarters of the season. My mom taught me a long time ago, if it is too good to be true, it usually is. That said, maybe A-Rod was doing things on the up and up -- but at this point, it would be naive not to at least wonder if he still had some extra help.
Matthews: Unfortunately, baseball and all professional sports have made this dirty bed for themselves and it’s not only naive, but irresponsible for us as journalists not to suspect hanky-panky when an athlete of an advanced age does something it seems unlikely he would be able to do. I’ll give Alex the benefit of the doubt on 2015, but would be very surprised if he were able to remain healthy all season and produce like that again in 2016.
Marchand: I doubt he'll be as lucky with his health as he was last year. At 41, even as a full-time DH, you have to think he is due for an injury or, at least, less production. While I do believe the fans will turn on him to some degree if he is not good, I think there is some breathing room. He won't be hated, like he once was, if he is just bad or hurt. However, if he is caught using PEDs again, well, that is another story. As for tying Babe Ruth with home run No. 714 this year -- he enters 2016 with 687 career longballs -- I don't see another season of 27-plus homers in the cards.
Matthews: To get back to our original question, I don't know for sure if Alex is a truly changed man, but I expect him to conduct himself in 2016 pretty much the way he did in 2015. I think he got a taste of what it's like to be a fan favorite, of a sort, and I also think he got a glimpse of what his future in the game could be after his retirement -- a nice, cushy TV job. He may be crazy at times, but Alex Rodriguez ain't stupid.
Now Wallace Matthews and Andrew Marchand aren't exactly accusing A-Rod of still being on steroids. Like anyone else with a brain they're skeptical and they don't trust him. And neither should you. Nobody should. But I do believe in my heart of hearts that A-Rod played 2015 clean. I think he faded off way too hard towards the end of the season to have been aided by any kind of PEDs. Those gummies would have had his bat sizzling all the way through the fall.
However, 2016 might be a BIG steroid year for Alex. We've seen this story before. A-Rod hits rockbottom with the public, humbles himself, flips the script by playing awesome, doesn't play so awesome and then all of the sudden he's taking steroids again. We saw it in 2009 when he was outed as a cheat for the first time. After carrying the Yankees to a World Series all it took was one shitty playoff performance for him to starting juicing again. We could be looking at a very similar situation if he comes out of the gate this year hitting .130 which wouldn't surprise me in the least. I'm not expecting anything if A-Rod's clean this year. He really showed his age the last two months of the season and I can't help but believe that that's the player he's going to be for the rest of his career.
That's why I don't think doing steroids again in 2016 would be the worst idea in the world. A-Rod's the cat's pajamas right now cause he had a really nice season on the whole when nobody expected it. He's hijacking the World Series from the broadcast booth, instagraming his tits off everyday and really seems to be enjoying himself but if he sucks it's not going to take long for the boos to start pouring down and for everything to revert back to the way it was a year ago. So If I were Alex Rodriguez and I was sure I was the same player I was for the last quarter of 2015 I wouldn't bother showing up to camp this year without a fanniepack full of primobolan.
PS - I'm kind of rooting for him to get caught again too only because it would be absolutely fascinating to see how he'd handle it.
