Love It Or Leeve It: A-Rod Can't Fill Two Voids

Any way you look at it, the Red Sox should keep Nomar and forget about Alex Rodriguez.

Look at the tangibles and the stats don’t compensate for the cost. Look at the intangibles and nothing can add up to Nomar.

Rodriguez is the more talented shortstop, but dealing both Nomar and Manny—whom ESPN’s Peter Gammons dubs the best right-handed hitter in the AL—for A-Rod doesn’t add up.

The Rangers are insisting that the Sox absorb some of Manny’s contract in addition to taking on A-Rod’s salary.

Rodriguez has seven years and around $180 million left on his contract. Ramirez has four years left at $20 million a season.

As the Dallas Morning News calculated, the Red Sox would be paying $25-30 million for the following five years to bring A-Rod to Boston. Plus, the Sox would need to get a new left fielder in addition to filling the hole at second and paying millions for a player they don’t have anymore.

Nomar and Manny, however, cost $31 million combined, and Nomar has just one year left on his contract.

Besides, gaining A-Rod’s productivity doesn’t offset the loss of Nomar’s and Manny’s. Last season Rodriguez hit .298 with 47 home runs and 118 RBI. Nomar hit .301; Manny hit .325.

Combined, they pounded 65 homers and knocked in 209. That leaves Boston in the hole 18 homers and 91 RBI if they pick up A-Rod. As aloof as Manny may be at times, his numbers are what counts.

Nomar’s not hitting the way he did three or four years ago, but the man is just 30. A-Rod is only two years younger.

With his wrist healed, injuries are no longer an issue. Nothing is stopping Nomar from running off another ridiculous season like 2000, when he hit .372 to become the AL batting champion the second straight year.

In 2002, he hit 56 doubles to surpass Rodriguez for the most doubles ever by a shortstop in a single season.

Nomar is the leader of the Red Sox, a team that rallied together to the cry of “cowboy up” and actually had a chance against the Yankees. He has been the spark plug since his Rookie of the Year campaign in 1997.

Dealing him is akin to ripping out the team’s heart and stomping on it.

The man called WEEI from his honeymoon in Hawaii with Mia Hamm, for goodness sakes, to say how much he wants to stay in Boston.

“I’ve always said that’s the only uniform I want to know when my career is over,” Garciaparra said to WEEI.

His explanation for the sometimes sour looks? Merely that he wants to win every game, and that intensity is easily read on his face.

Why would you want to trade that passion away?

In addition to his effort on the field, Nomar contributes off it. Just look at his resume, which includes youth education programs, baseball clinics and involvement with the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Jimmy Fund.

Sure, you can say that A-Rod will contribute to the community, but Nomar has grassroots support already. He is a part of the city—and recently bought a home with his new wife in Boston.

“My heart and my first option have always been [with Boston] and it hasn’t strayed from that,” he said to the Boston Herald. “The ball’s really in management’s court.”

Now the owners should honor GM Theo Epstein’s statement to the Boston Herald: “Nomar has been consistent from Day 1 with us that he wants to come back. And we have been consistent with him that we want him back.”

—Staff writer Brenda E. Lee can be reached at belee@fas.harvard.edu.