Alex Rodriguez made more than $200K per game with Rangers, Yankees
— -- If this is it for Alex Rodriguez, he'll finish his career with the highest career earnings in the history of the sport.
Let's show you the math.
For his first seven years in the league, the Seattle Mariners paid Rodriguez a total of $13 million, which included a $1 million signing bonus for signing his contract as the No. 1 overall draft pick in 1993.
Mariners' cost for A-Rod per game: $16,129.
Then came the Texas Rangers, who gave him the biggest contract in sports history in December 2000, a 10-year, $252 million deal.
It came with a $10 million signing bonus and salaries of $21 million for the first three years and deferred money tied to those years of an additional $40 million. The Rangers then traded Rodriguez to the New York Yankees. They originally agreed to pay $67 million of the $179 million remaining, but when the Yankees redid the deal after A-Rod's fourth year in pinstripes to a new 10-year deal for $275 million, the Rangers' amount was reduced. Our calculations put the Rangers' bill at $125 million.
Rangers' cost for A-Rod per game: $257,732.
And finally we have the Yankees.
They paid $15 million for each of the first three seasons of A-Rod (from 2004 to 2006) and paid $16 million in 2007. Even though he will be released Friday, the Yankees will continue to pay out the $25.57 million they owe him through next year to finish the 10-year, $275 million deal they made starting for the 2008 season. That puts the Yankees' total cost for A-Rod at $336 million. That amount is then reduced by $22 million because of Rodriguez getting suspended for the 2014 season. The Yankees were to pay A-Rod $6 million in a marketing bonus for hitting home run 660, but it was eventually agreed to give $3.5 million to charity with Rodriguez receiving nothing.
Counting Friday's game would put him at 1,568 total games with the team.
Yankees' cost for A-Rod per game: $200,255
Add up all the earnings, and Alex Rodriguez, should he not join another team, will have made $452 million when the last Rangers deferred payments come in.
The next-closest in the four major American sports? Kevin Garnett, who sits at $336 million.
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