Report: ESPN looking to poach Alex Rodriguez from Fox Sports
Things have certainly taken a turn for the better for Alex Rodriguez.
It wasn’t long ago that Rodriguez was an outcast, loathed by many for his association with the steroid era and banned by baseball for an entire year in the harshest non-lifetime suspension ever levied by MLB.
That was 2014. Fast-forward three-plus years, a full season after his retirement from baseball.
Rodriguez is no longer a pariah, but a respected and popular analyst for Fox Sports. He’s dating J Lo. The Yankees just paid him $27 million to not play baseball. And now, networks are reportedly fighting over his services.
Sporting News reported late Tuesday that ESPN is trying to lure Rodriguez away from Fox Sports to work as a baseball analyst.
Disney, ESPN’s parent company, just purchased a large portion of the 21st Century Fox portfolio, including a network of regional broadcasters that own rights to local sports. What was not included in that deal was Fox Sports. The mouse, however, appears intent on poaching talent that it didn’t purchase.
It’s good to be A-Rod. So good, in fact, that Derek Jeter just might be willing to trade places with him in 2018.
