“I Have Absolutely Nothing to Do With It” – Yankees Icon Derek Jeter on People Thinking He Will Persuade A-Rod to Come to New York Amid His Free Agency

Free agency in the game can lead a player anywhere he wants. It was true before, and it is true now. In 2000, then player of the Seattle Mariners, Alex Rodriguez, wanted to test the waters of free agency. At the time, A-Rod and Derek Jeter were the best of buddies. Therefore, Mets fans were pretty sure that A-Rod would return to NYC because of his best friend.

However, Jeter did not want A-Rod to come to New York just because of his friendship. And he also said that no matter the decision A-Rod takes, he will have no say in it. It will be completely Rodriguez’s choice, and he certainly did choose for himself.

Did Derek Jeter try to persuade his best friend?

Jeter just said that people completely forgot about the fact that Alex liked being in Seattle. So it was also possible that the Mariners would offer him a contract that he could not refuse, and he would stay with them.

“I have absolutely nothing to do with it. I have no bearing on where that guy plays. It seems like everyone’s trying to use me as bait to get him to come to New York. It makes no difference to me,” Jeter said. 

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People thought that just because Jeter and A-Rod were friends, Jeter would want him in NY and would persuade him for it. But that was not the case. He very well knew A-Rod was able to make up his mind on his own, and he did that.

Did Jeter say something about his friendship with Alex?

The Yankees’ shortstop said he has plenty of friends in New York and he does not want him to come to NY because of it. He said, “I have plenty of people to hang out with. It’s not a situation where I’m saying, ‘I hope he comes to New York so I can hang out with him.’ That’s not the case. That hasn’t crossed my mind. It seems like people are trying to build that up. Not at all.”

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The thing that did not even cross the captain’s mind was the topic of plenty of conversations at that time. At last, everybody knows what happened. Alex did leave the Mariners to join the Texas Rangers for a couple of years to finally go to the New York Yankees.