What If Alex Rodriguez Keeps Not Hitting?

Has Father Time caught up to the Yankees 40-year old designated hitter and what will New York do if Alex Rodriguez continues not to hit in the middle of the lineup? These are questions that many fans are asking after two weeks of the 2016 MLB regular season but none of them have been doling out many answers unfortunately. Have no fear, and keep in mind small sample sizes and the fact that I know no more than you, for I am here to attempt to answer a few of those for you this morning.

First and foremost one must remember, and I know I’ve said this a million times already this season but it needs to be beaten into some people’s head unfortunately, that two weeks is a terrible sample size to judge a player on. Some players still have eye popping numbers that are sure to come back down to Earth while the exact opposite is true for some of the struggling players that came out of the gate looking sluggish and behind. Of course you have the players that start slow and never recover and you also have players who start hot and stay hot, see Nolan Arenado’s stats in September of this year for proof of this, but for the most part you generally don’t worry after two weeks. Well unless you’re 40-years old and a player that will turn 41-years old later this summer.

It is extremely possible that Father Time has caught up to Alex Rodriguez and that he will be a former shell of himself and half the man he was, statistically speaking, in 2015. The Yankees lineup looks a whole lot thinner with some combination of Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran hitting in the middle of it than it does with a healthy and 30+ home run producing Alex Rodriguez in the middle. If New York had to though they could weather the storm if Starlin Castro keeps up his torrid pace. Having Castro hit in the 5^th or 6^th hole and dropping Alex to the 7^th-9^th hole is possible, although I would venture to guess Joe Girardi would give Alex every opportunity to snap out of this funk.

I’m not down on Alex. I won’t be down on Alex after two or three months let alone two or three weeks so don’t mistake this post as that. I love to play devil’s advocate and I love to look at both sides of an equation when I write on this blog. Maybe that’s why a lot of you come here, I’m not sure. I look at what I think would happen if Alex were to hit 30 home runs again in 2016 and the next week I look at what I think would happen if he hit three all season long. It’s what I do and I hope you enjoy because I enjoy putting the content out for you guys.