One of the greatest “what ifs” in baseball history may end up haunting Bobby Valentine for a long time.
Retired former MVP Alex Rodriguez was on the broadcast team for Sunday night’s game between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals on ESPN. During the telecast, Rodriguez spoke candidly on his regrets about not signing with the Mets as a free agent back in 2000. A-Rod mentioned how he grew up watching the Mets and that he wanted to play shortstop for them.
Interesting to hear ARod talk about how much he wishes he were a Met pic.twitter.com/vpjtKqPG8D
— Mets Citi (@metsciti) April 9, 2018
In response, Valentine, who was the manager of the Mets from 1996 to 2002, tweeted that he always wanted to have Rodriguez on the team.
I always wanted ARod to be a Met. Wow. What a difference.
— Bobby Valentine (@BobbyValentine) April 9, 2018
Instead, Rodriguez signed a a ten-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers (the biggest in MLB history at the time) before being traded to the other New York team, the Yankees, in 2004 and finishing his career there.
A-Rod’s desire to have signed with the Mets in retrospect is hardly a new revelation — he has been singing the same tune for the last decade now. But the Mets had just come off a National League pennant victory in the 2000 season and proceeded to fall off the map for a few years after that. Valentine himself was fired after the 2002 campaign, so it is safe to say that he may be shaking his fist at what could have been with Rodriguez.
