Alex Rodriguez: Talent, Contracts and Controversy

By 4Baseball Staff · November 5, 2026 · 9 min read

Alex Rodriguez's career in numbers, from 696 home runs and three MVP awards to the shortstop years in Seattle and Texas, the Yankees era, his suspension and a Hall of Fame vote that has stalled.

Alex Rodriguez retired with 696 home runs, 2,086 runs batted in and 3,115 hits, a combination that only a handful of players in the historical record can match. He is fifth in career home runs, fourth in runs batted in and eighth in runs scored. He won three Most Valuable Player awards, two Gold Gloves at shortstop and ten Silver Sluggers, played in 14 All-Star Games, and helped the Yankees win the 2009 World Series. He is also not in the Hall of Fame, and through the 2025 ballot he had received between about 34 and 37 percent of the vote, far short of the 75 percent required.

Both of those facts belong in the same biography. This article follows the career in phases (the teenage shortstop in Seattle, the Texas years and the largest contract in sports at the time, the Yankees seasons that produced his best honors and his worst headlines, and the decline) and then looks at what the numbers say, what they leave out, and why the Hall of Fame vote has gone the way it has. Every statistic comes from the historical record through the 2025 season. For other players whose careers are measured against his, see our profiles of Albert Pujols, Ichiro Suzuki and Craig Biggio.

Rodriguez was born on July 27, 1975, in New York City, bats and throws right-handed, and was listed at 6 feet 3 inches and 230 pounds. His major-league debut came on July 8, 1994, and his last game on August 12, 2016.

The career in one table

Three details in that table deserve attention. The 329 stolen bases make him one of only three players in the historical record with 600 home runs and 300 steals, along with Willie Mays and Barry Bonds. The 2,287 strikeouts rank fifth all-time, which is a reminder that big power usually comes with a lot of swinging and missing. And the .380 on-base percentage means he reached base far more often than his .295 average suggests, so his value came from power and patience together.

Seattle, 1994 to 2000: a teenager at shortstop

The Seattle Mariners made Rodriguez the first player chosen in the 1993 draft, and he reached the majors at 18. His first two seasons were short and unremarkable (17 games and a .204 average in 1994, then 48 games and a .232 average in 1995), but 1996 was a breakthrough: 146 games, 215 hits, 36 home runs, 123 runs batted in and a .358 average, which won the American League batting title. He was an All-Star for the first time.

The lines that followed show a durable young star:

His 1998 season joined the "40-40" club, with 42 home runs and 46 stolen bases. For a shortstop, a position that has traditionally been filled for defense rather than for slugging, that mix was almost unheard of. The Mariners won their first division title in 1995 (before he was a regular) and returned to the postseason in 1997 and 2000, so he played in Seattle's early playoff teams without reaching a World Series. In all, he hit 189 home runs in a Mariners uniform.

If you want to see how Seattle's next star at the top of the order compared, our profile of Ichiro Suzuki picks up the story after Rodriguez left.

Texas, 2001 to 2003: the big contract and the big numbers

After the 2000 season Rodriguez became a free agent and signed with the Texas Rangers for ten years, a contract that was widely reported at $252 million and that was the largest in sports history at the time. He moved to the other side of the American League West and produced three huge seasons:

• 2001: 52 home runs, 135 runs batted in, a .318 average and 201 hits.
• 2002: 57 home runs, which led the majors, 142 runs batted in and a .300 average.
• 2003: 47 home runs (tied with Jim Thome for the major-league lead), 118 runs batted in and a .298 average. He won the American League Most Valuable Player award that year, an unusual choice because the Rangers finished last in their division.

He also won Gold Gloves in 2002 and 2003, so the defensive reputation was real, and the historical record lists four Hank Aaron Awards across his career (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2007), which go to the best hitter in each league. In total he hit 156 home runs in three years with Texas. The team did not make the postseason in any of them.

Rodriguez later acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs during his Texas years, a point that sits uncomfortably next to those numbers. We come back to it below, because it affects how many readers view the record and how the Hall of Fame electorate has treated him.

New York, 2004 to 2016: a third baseman in pinstripes

In February 2004 the Rangers traded Rodriguez to the Yankees. Because Derek Jeter was already the Yankees' shortstop, Rodriguez moved to third base. The Yankees years produced his longest run of postseason baseball and his most consistent production: 351 home runs for the club, which is seventh on its all-time list, and two more Most Valuable Player awards.

The 2007 season was the high point: 54 home runs and 156 runs batted in, with a .314 average, and the third MVP. It came the same year he passed 500 home runs. He later opted out of his contract at the end of that season and signed a new ten-year deal with the Yankees, reported at $275 million. Our story of the team's other titles is in the best Yankees seasons and every October run.

His postseason record is more mixed. Over 12 postseasons in the historical record he played 76 games and hit .259 (72 hits in 278 at-bats) with 13 home runs and 41 runs batted in. The 2009 postseason, when the Yankees beat Philadelphia in the World Series, is the only year he played on a championship team (the database lists 2009 as the sole World Series team). A career postseason sample of 278 at-bats is small, which is worth remembering before judging any hitter on it; how the MLB postseason works explains the rounds he played in.

The suspension and the end of the career

The decline started with injuries. His games fell from 158 in 2007 to 138 in 2008, 124 in 2009 and 137 in 2010, and in 2011 and 2012 he played 99 and 122 games and hit 16 and 18 home runs. In 2013 he appeared in 44 games and hit seven home runs. In August of that year Major League Baseball announced a 211-game suspension in connection with its Biogenesis investigation, a case involving a Florida clinic accused of supplying performance-enhancing drugs. He kept playing while he appealed, and an arbitrator later reduced the penalty to the entire 2014 season. The historical record has no 2014 line for him because he did not play.

He returned in 2015, at age 39, and hit .250 with 33 home runs and 86 runs batted in in 151 games, a solid season by any measure for a player of that age after a year off. In 2016 he hit .200 with nine home runs in 65 games, and his playing career ended in August of that year, when the Yankees released him after his final game on August 12. He finished with 696 home runs, four short of 700, and 3,115 hits, which ranks 23rd on the historical list.

The late years fall well short of the standard the first half of his career set, but 2015 was a legitimate comeback season for a player of that age after a year away, and it added 33 home runs to the total.

What he was: a shortstop who hit like a first baseman

To appreciate Rodriguez's peak, compare him with the typical shortstop of his early years. Shortstops are chosen mostly for their glove, and an offensive line of .300 with 20 home runs is considered a strong season. Rodriguez hit 36 home runs in 1996 and 42 in both 1998 and 1999 while playing shortstop. In Texas he hit 52 and then 57 in consecutive seasons while still winning Gold Gloves. The sheet shows 10 Silver Sluggers (the award for the best offensive player at each position) between 1996 and 2008, including both as a shortstop and as a third baseman.

The numbers also show the limits. He struck out a great deal, he never hit higher than .321 in any season after 1996, and his postseason line was ordinary. What he did was produce power and on-base skill for a very long time at demanding positions.

One way to see the scale is to compare him with his peers. Three seasons of 47 or more home runs in Texas, eight seasons of 40 or more across his career, and three MVPs in five years from 2003 to 2007 put him in a small group. The historical record does not carry wins above replacement, so we do not quote that statistic.

Three rates that show the power

Raw totals reward longevity, so it helps to convert a few of them into rates. Dividing his 10,566 at-bats by 696 home runs gives one home run every 15.2 at-bats over the whole career, a pace that few players have sustained for more than 20 seasons. Dividing his 2,086 runs batted in by 2,784 games gives about 0.75 runs batted in per game, close to three in every four games he played. And his 2,021 runs scored against 2,784 games gives about 0.73 runs per game.

None of those rates is adjusted for the era, the ballpark or the lineup around him, which is the main thing to remember when you compare players from different decades. A hitter surrounded by good hitters has more chances to drive in runs and score them, and Rodriguez spent most of his career in strong lineups in Seattle and New York. That is not a criticism; it is a reason to prefer rate statistics that do not depend on teammates, such as on-base plus slugging, where his .930 career mark is the clearest single measure in the table. You can work out rates like these for any player with our stat calculator.

The Hall of Fame question

Rodriguez became eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2022 and has appeared on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot four times through 2025:

At 135 of 394 votes, his first-year share was about 34 percent; by 2025 it was about 37 percent. The threshold is 75 percent of ballots cast. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, whose careers are also tied to the sport's drug history, were not elected by the writers either, so the pattern is consistent. A player may stay on the ballot for 10 years, which means Rodriguez remains eligible through the 2031 vote; we do not predict how it will go.

The debate is not about performance, which no one questions. It turns on whether a player who acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs, and who was later suspended for violating the league's drug program, can be honored by the Hall. That is a question about values, and the data cannot settle it. For a first baseman of the same generation who was elected by the writers, see the Jeff Bagwell profile.

Common questions

How many home runs did Alex Rodriguez hit? 696, fifth on the historical list behind Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Albert Pujols (703).

How many MVP awards did he win? Three: 2003 with Texas, and 2005 and 2007 with the Yankees.

Did he win a World Series? Yes, in 2009 with the Yankees. It was the only Series his teams reached with him on the roster.

Why is he not in the Hall of Fame? The Hall requires 75 percent of ballots. He received 146 of 394 in 2025. Many voters cite his admitted drug use and his suspension.

Where did he play? Seattle from 1994 to 2000, Texas from 2001 to 2003 and the Yankees from 2004 to 2016, apart from the 2014 season, which he missed.

Where to go next

Compare his totals with the other great sluggers on the leaders page, or use the stat calculator to work out his rates yourself. For his teammates in pinstripes, read about the Yankees' postseason history, and for another player with more than 3,000 hits and a very different Hall of Fame story, see Craig Biggio.