If Alex Rodriguez wasn’t generally hated by non-Yankees fans throughout baseball, his upcoming 700th home run would be cause for celebration. In the long history of baseball, only three players have hit 700 or more home runs. The legendary Babe Ruth was the first to do it, way back in 1934. The much-respected Hank Aaron joined the 700-club in 1973.
Thirty-one years later, in 2004, Barry Bonds hit his 700th home run, but it was much less celebrated because of the cloud surrounding Bonds and PED use. Now we have A-Rod on the cusp of 700, with the same clouded reputation.
This has been a down year for Rodriguez. He got off to an ugly start, hitting just .194/.275/.444 through his first 20 games. He was put on the DL because of a strained right hamstring in early May and missed roughly three weeks. Since returning from the DL, A-Rod has hit just .244/.259/.385. Even more alarming has been his 26 strikeouts in 81 plate appearances (32 percent). Rodriguez has never struck out at this rate. His career strikeout rate is 18.7 percent, although he’s been in the low-20s since 2012.
He’s also not walking much, just 5.6 percent of the time. The good news (for non-Yankees fans) is that A-Rod still has one more year and $21 million on his contract.
A-Rod is projected to hit one home run every 23 plate appearances, so he’ll need around 115 plate appearances to reach 700 home runs in his career. Based on his playing time when healthy, it will likely take A-Rod another 34 games or so to get the five home runs he needs. This would put the end of July as the date to circle on your calendar.
Projected date to reach 700 home runs—Sunday, July 31
Next: Ichiro Suzuki Nearing 3,000 Hits