You can't say its exactly flourishing either. A-Rod is coming off one of his worst seasons (relative to his standards) on record, he's hated by the fans, and the tension between himself and the captain as well as his resentment of Torre's demotion in the batting order has created an environent where he can no longer succeed.

I'd be careful about the number of people who want A-Rod...there are quite a few teams in the market for his talent, who are missing one or two pieces of the puzzle or need a jolt in the arm and think he may be the answer. With the Yankees obviously taking the money hit, why would a team object to trading a starting pitcher for an All-Star 3rd baseman if it will help their team? Sure the Yanks won't get fair value - but they don't want him in NY despite the public face of the situation put on by Cashman and Boras.