Yankees Editorial: Sorry, But Alex Rodriguez Is The Face Of The Yankees

When you look at baseball, you have to realize at the end of the day, you root for someone’s business. Plain and simple. Like every business, they need a face of it in order to market it. Pepsi has its own pitchmen. Apple have different ones. Baseball teams are no different.

When you think of faces of the franchise, they are usually homegrown guys. When you think of the Marlins, it’s Giancarlo Stanton. The face of the Rockies is Troy Tulowitzki. The face of the Mets is David Wright.

For the first time in a very long time, Derek Jeter isn’t the face of the Yankees. MLB Network is doing their usual face of MLB contest and Brett Gardner was picked as the face of the Yankees. To me, that’s a mistake. 

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When you think of a face of the franchise, you think of someone that an average baseball fan wants to see play. They wanna see Stanton hit. They wanna see Tulo hit. They wanna watch Clayton Kershaw or Felix Hernandez pitch. It’s supposed to the be the first guy you think of when you think of that team and gets the needle moving.

Gardner is a good player. He’s not on that level. Love him or hate him, Alex Rodriguez is the face of the team at this point?

Why?

Because, you either love or hate the guy. You want him to fail or succeed. No matter what, you want to see what the guy is going to do next.  That’s a face of the franchise. He gets attention and the average baseball fan and sports fan in general want to see what the guy is going to do, especially this year.

The Yankees don’t have anyone else who could really be it. Masahiro Tanaka could be the guy, but he needs to actually pitch a full season without getting injured first. Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann aren’t those kind of guys.

If Dellin Betances has another ridiculous season? Maybe.

Once A-Rod goes, whether it’s this year or after that, they’ll need another guy to step in. Maybe it’s Aaron Judge. Maybe it’s Greg Bird. Maybe it’s Luis Severino.

At this point, the Yankees are in an transition phase. It may last for a couple of seasons as the old guard retires and new players come up.

Gardner just isn’t good enough to be the face at this point. Love him or hate him, A-Rod is the face of the New York Yankees.

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