MLB: Alex Rodriguez and the 700 Home Run Club

Alex Rodriguez – 695 HR

Alex Rodriguez has effectively spent his entire baseball-playing career in the brightest of spotlights. Widely lauded as the greatest prospect of his generation, A-Rod was selected first overall by the Seattle Mariners in the 1993 draft. During his seven years with the M’s, he was as good as advertised and then some. He did it all, hitting for average and power, using his speed as a legitimate base-stealing threat, and playing stellar defense at shortstop.

In 1996, Rodriguez’s first full season as a major leaguer, he belted 36 home runs, kicking off his reign as one of the league’s most prolific power hitters. He hit 42 in 1998 and wouldn’t manage fewer than 40 again until 2004. A-Rod’s eye-popping numbers in Seattle leveraged him into a mammoth 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers prior to the 2001 campaign, the most lucrative professional sports deal at the time.

Rodriguez would spend only three years in Texas before famously pushing for a trade to the Yankees, but regardless of where he was, the long balls kept coming. Between 2001 and 2007, he averaged 47 homers per year, topping out at 57 in 2002. He enjoyed arguably his best year as a big leaguer in 2007, posting a career high 1.067 OPS with 54 home runs and 156 RBI on the way to his third MVP award.

It seemed not a matter of if but when A-Rod would smash the all-time home run record. He appeared well on his way in 2007 after becoming at age 32 the youngest player to ever reach 500 homers. That notion took a major hit the following year when it was revealed that Rodriguez had tested positive for a banned substance in 2003. Even if he eventually broke the mark, it would be tarnished in the eyes of many.

Persistent injuries and continued controversy has largely derailed A-Rod’s performance over the past several seasons. He missed 63 games in 2011 and 118 in 2012, and he received a yearlong ban in 2013 for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. This period wiped out significant home-run-hitting opportunities for Rodriguez, who managed only 41 over that span.

Last year featured a surprise renaissance for A-Rod, who swatted 33 homers in his return from exile. He has struggled in 2016, however, slashing .216/.261/.405 with just eight home runs in 41 games. Even at this relatively slow pace, he should reach 700 shortly after the All-Star break, perhaps even just before it if he rediscovers his power stroke.

Due to his questionable history, A-Rod crossing the 700-homer threshold won’t be the momentous, acknowledged-league-wide occasion it otherwise might have been. But genuine or not, it’s still history and an event everyone will recognize one way or another, whether that be approval or disgust.

Next: The Great Bambino