Alex Rodriguez will call time on a hugely successful and often controversial baseball career in 2017 when his contract with the Yankees expires.
“I won’t play after next year,” Rodriguez told ESPN on Wednesday. “I’ve really enjoyed my time. It’s time for me to go home and be dad.”
Rodriguez’s plan was confirmed by his spokesman Ron Berkowitz, who said: “At the end of the contract he’s going to be 42 years old, but we still have (324) games to go until we get to this point.”
Rodriguez, who turns 41 on 27 July, is into the final two years of his 10-year, $275m contract with New York. The 20-year veteran made his MLB debut for the Seattle Mariners in 1994, and has 3,070 career hits at .297. He enters 2016 with 687 home runs, and should become just the fourth player to cross the 700 threshold, joining Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth as members of an exclusive club.
Rodriguez starred for the Yankees in several offensive categories last season after serving a year-long suspension for admitting he used performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez was initially banned for 213 games in August 2013, but his suspension was reduced on appeal to 162 games, keeping him off the field for the entire 2014 season.
His 33 home runs last season were the sixth-most in MLB history for a player 39 years of age or older.
A-Rod will earn $40m over the final two years of the contract he signed before the 2008 season.
