If the New York Yankees collapse in the season’s final two months and miss the MLB Postseason, a current Yankees could still be in the Postseason picture – Alex Rodriguez. Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News is reporting that Fox has had discussions with A-Rod and his representatives about adding him to their Postseason coverage if the Yankees don’t make the playoffs.
Industry sources say contact was made between A-Rod’s representatives and Fox Sports executives for a preliminary discussion about the possibility of Rodriguez becoming involved in the Foxies’ postseason coverage.
No decision on his involvement has been made.
Furthermore, the sources say, contact has also been established between A-Rod’s camp and baseball’s other network partners involved in the postseason (Turner and ESPN) to discuss a possible gig. Turner will air one LCS game, four division series game and one wild card game. ESPN’s postseason involvement is limited; it carries one of the two wild card games.
Bringing active players in to cover the Postseason isn’t a new thing. Last season, Nick Swisher and David Ortiz joined Fox’s coverage, while then-Padres manager Bud Black joined the studio crew for the JABO telecast during Game 1 of the NLCS. In 2013, Jimmy Rollins and AJ Pierzynski joined Fox’s playoff coverage and received high marks.
Fox is also no stranger to controversy when it comes to some of their analysts – I mean, Pete Rose is *still* banned by MLB, and he’s been a part of Fox’s studio coverage this year.
Will this happen? It’s anyone’s best guess. There are still too many balls in the air right now. But could it happen? I could definitely see Fox taking the plunge. Some may decry this as a “Fox stunt”, with a purpose of drawing buzz and not much else. However, A-Rod clearly has a solid mind for the game and could end up providing top notch analysis for Fox.
There’s very little risk here for Fox – it’s not as if people are going to *not* watch playoff baseball because Rodriguez is involved in the pregame and postgame coverage. And if he flames out as an analyst, Fox can simply not bring him back and close the book on his tenure with the network.
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