Alex Rodriguez botches Justin Verlander’s career history in awkward interview

Alex Rodriguez had a rough go of it interviewing Justin Verlander ahead of the Home Run Derby.

Rodriguez appeared to be setting up some kind of underdog redemption angle for Verlander, asking him, “How do you explain being a late draft pick, being designated for assignment a couple of times with two different teams?”

Awkward moment for A-Rod, interviewing Justin Verlander saying we was designated for assignment by two different teams.

Verlander, a 10-time All-Star, has never been designated for assignment. pic.twitter.com/nxLbChZbDq

— SportsTalk 790 (@SportsTalk790) July 13, 2026

Neither half of that sentence is true. Verlander went second overall in the 2004 draft, one pick after Matt Bush, and was in the majors within a year. He’s also never been designated for assignment, not once, across 20 seasons and stops with the Tigers, Astros, Mets, and Giants. Being DFA’d is a process reserved for players a team is trying to get off its 40-man roster. It has never once applied to a 10-time All-Star and three-time Cy Young winner.

Verlander, understandably, did not know what to do with this.

“Me? No, you’ve got the wrong notes,” he said.

Rodriguez laughed it off and pivoted to asking how Verlander has pitched at a high level for so long, which, fine, is actually a reasonable question. It’s just not the one he’d spent the last thirty seconds building up to.

Whether it makes him feel better or not, Rodriguez wasn’t the only Fox voice getting called out for scrambling a Hall of Famer’s career this week. Derek Jeter needled Colin Cowherd on Monday over a 2024 interview where Cowherd asked what it was like facing Nolan Ryan — a pitcher whose career ended two years before Jeter’s started.

Someone might want to give A-Rod the same warning next time.