Paul Molitor, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, has made his stance very clear. The seven-time All-Star doesn’t think that Alex Rodriguez belongs in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Molitor, who played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays during his 21-year Major League Baseball career, told the Canadian Baseball Network over the weekend that he thinks A-Rod’s 162-game suspension is justified and that the New York Yankees third baseman won’t find his way into Cooperstown after his career officially is over.
“No, I don’t think he belongs,” Molitor said.
Rodriguez, of course, has been suspended for the entire 2014 season because of his connection to the Biogenesis clinic that allegedly supplied numerous major leaguers, including A-Rod, with performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez never tested positive for PEDs, and the controversial slugger has vehemently denied any wrongdoing despite Major League Baseball’s findings during its investigation.
“I don’t think he was overly targeted by Major League Baseball,” Molitor said. “I [didn’t] think they would impose such a severe suspension.
“I know that there was not a positive drug test, but there was just cause.”
MLB relied heavily on the testimony of Biogenesis’ founder, Anthony Bosch, during its investigation and ultimately decided to suspend Rodriguez for 211 games. Rodriguez appealed the suspension, and an arbitrator reduced the suspension to 162 games, leaving many to wonder whether A-Rod’s career could be over. It’s clear that Rodriguez’s on-field accomplishments — which include three MVP awards, 14 All-Star selections, 654 home runs and a World Series ring — forever will be overshadowed by his link to PEDs.
“Regardless of where [Rodriguez’s] career was going, from the information I’ve been exposed to and from what I have read, I don’t think he will get in,” Molitor said. “But hey, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds get roughly 30 percent of the vote.”
Clemens and Bonds — both of whom also have been linked to PEDs — fell way short of the necessary 75 percent needed for Hall of Fame induction in their first two years on the ballot despite their impressive career accolades. We’ll know in a few years whether Rodriguez is destined for a similar fate.
Have a question for Ricky Doyle? Send it to him via Twitter at @TheRickyDoyle or send it here.
