Alex Rodriguez Believes He Will Win The Yankees Third Base Job

Professional athletes are the most competitive people around. They believe they can still do at 40 what they did at 25. The Yankees re-signed third baseman Chase Headley to a four year deal because they just don’t know what they can get out of Alex Rodriguez. Well, according to a report in Newsday, A-Rod believes he will win the job from Headley.

“Alex’s mind is that job’s not Headley’s, it’s Alex’s to lose,” the source said. “That’s what he thinks. Alex is going into training camp thinking that he is the starting third baseman, that if there’s a competition, Headley’s got to win it from him. It doesn’t matter about the money, what they signed Headley for. This guy [Rodriguez] can play.”

That’s a very healthy attitude for A-Rod to take. If he can still play he believes he should start. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, A-Rod does have two bat hips and the Yankees gave Headley that contract for a reason.

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A-Rod has higher expectations for himself than the Yankees do. It seems like whatever the Yankees can get out of A-Rod over the next three years is gravy. He’s basically a $20 million wild card over the next three seasons.

Here’s more from the article:

“Alex learned a lot in the last year,” the source said, “and by the time he gets back on the field, it will almost be a year and a half. He’s changed as a person. He’s put his head down and he’s working hard because he wants to play the game and respects the game, and he knows that he made some mistakes and the best way to atone for that is to just put your head down and go.”

That’s exactly what A-Rod should be doing. Be more seen and less heard.

I’ve already said in this space that I don’t expect him to be on the roster April 6 and I still don’t. However if he is and can be a functional piece off the bench and at DH I’m all for it.