Steve Phillips still believes his position was correct. It was the way he handled it that was all wrong.
When Phillips, then the team’s general manager, and the Mets pulled out of the Alex Rodriguez sweepstakes before even discussing money following the 2000 season, he attributed the reason to not wanting to have a “24-plus-one-man roster,” because of all the extra demands by Rodriguez and his camp.
“I feel badly Alex got stuck with that label,” said Phillips, who was at the Stadium for A-Rod’s last game as a Yankee, working as SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio host.