Alex Putterman Has It Right, Jose Reyes Deserves A-Rod Send-Off

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Maybe the term will become part of sports culture, an ‘A-Rod send-off”. Oh, you know such and such? He got an A-Rod send-off because he could barely move around anymore. Of course, I’m referring to the treatment Alex Rodriguez received from the New York Yankees in August of 2016. He wasn’t playing well so the team arranged for his release. Yet, before sending him off to the (fill-in-the-blank) broadcast booth, he was able to play one more game in front of his hometown fans at Yankee Stadium.

This whole idea is in my mind because of an article I read by Alex Putterman of Awful Announcing/The Comeback fame. He was writing about one of my favorite players, Jose Reyes, and made the case (among others) that an A-Rod send-off for Reyes is a valid option for the New York Mets right now. While it’s been crummy to check the Mets’ box score every night and see Reyes go 0-fer (or not play at all), Putterman is 100-percent correct. Right now, he’s not offering much to the team but like Mike Puma noted on Twitter, he has deep roots in the organization.

I’d even go further, though. Reyes has a soft-spot in many Mets’ fans heart, despite his financially-driven departure and incredibly ironic wife-beater-wearing mugshot. I’d compare Reyes’ relationship to Mets’ fans like their relationship with Lenny Dykstra: no matter how much they embarrass themselves, we’ll always remember the good days fondly. And of course, we want them both to wind up alright.

That’s why the A-Rod send-off works so well! It serves both parties just fine. A compromise, if you will. The Mets — who are barely playing him anyway — can disperse his at-bats elsewhere and Reyes, well, he can have his official send-off, video tribute, and ovation before riding off to the independent leagues. Just kidding, I hope he goes with some pride.

I don’t know if his English is good enough for a TV job but he’s built his reputation back up enough for some sort of post-playing career inside the baseball world.

You can read the entire article by Alex Putterman here.

CATEGORY: MLB