Former MLB player believes Alex Rodriguez' steroid controversy completely overshadows one of baseball's best careers
Alex Rodriguez has some of the best statistics in baseball history. For a long time, he was one of the best players in baseball. The unfortunate truth is that Rodriguez did take steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.
The controversy that comes with that, along with the poor handling of the situation on his part, has stained an otherwise incredible legacy. Former MLB player Xavier Scruggs says that has tarnished a good career.
"Everything surrounding him outside of that excellence of playing has now tarnished a lot of what he has done."
@Xavier_Scruggs looks back at the polarizing career of Alex Rodriguez.
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Here's what he said:
"Ultimately, seeing him put up the numbers year in and year out and dominate the sport was something that attracted everybody towards Alex Rodriguez. You think about what he did to represent the sport from '94 to 2016."
He continued:
"There was so much excellence on the field, but everything surrounding him outside of that excellence of playing has now tarnished a lot of what he has done. His using steroids in the prime of his career- not because he's aging or recovering, but because he wanted to live up to the standards and the contract."
Rodriguez had one of the best baseball careers. If not for the steroid controversy, he would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He was so good, but the steroids and his public persona during that time turned everyone off.
He currently stands very little chance of getting enough votes to get into the Hall of Fame.
How good was Alex Rodriguez?
Alex Rodriguez was an incredible player. His career stats, though they are a bit questionable thanks to PED use, are unreal.
He had a poor 2016 in his final year, but he recorded 113.7 fWAR in his career, which is one of the best totals in recent history.
He has 696 total home runs, one of the very few to surpass 600 and near the top of the all-time leaderboards.
He has a career 141 wRC+, so for the entirety of his two-decade career, he was 41% better at hitting than the average baseball player.
He was also excellent defensively, so he was a true all-around player who dominated the sport for many years.