It’s a holly jolly Christmas for A-Rod and family. Everyone in the MLB is posting their Christmas photos, and Alex Rodriguez is not shying away from being part of this tradition. However, his take is a little different; while people celebrate Christmas in their pajamas at home, open presents, and have family dinners, A-Rod is seen suited up at his cozy place.

A-Rod has about 4.3 million followers on Instagram. His bio says ‘proud father of 2’ and ‘also used to play baseball.’ The former player was part of the Yankees for most of his time in MLB, and apart from the pinstripes, the 49-year-old also played for the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. Just three days ago, A-Rod became Santa for children—he went into a Target store in Harlem and got them gifts.

Alex Rodriguez also distributed envelopes of money to the children and gave them 30 minutes to pick whatever they wanted with that money. Now that Rodriguez had shared happiness in the neighborhood, he let a sneak peek into his own home as well. In a funny video he uploaded, Alex Rodriguez was sitting and sipping coffee on a sofa, as the caption read, “Latinos getting all dressed up on Christmas Eve only to go sit en la salsa.”

This caption was a reference to Alex Rodriguez’s Latino roots and the tradition of getting all ready only to go and sit in ‘la sala,’ which means the living room. With the video, Rodriguez also wished everyone in his own style. The former shortstop wrote, “Merry Christmas from our sala to yours! 🎄” Now that winter is nearing its end, so will the offseason. One name that has been linked to the former Yankee player is Juan Soto, whose deal has been compared to that of A-Rod’s back in 2000.

The connection between Juan Soto and Alex Rodriguez

On December 11, 2000, in a small hotel room in Dallas of the Anatole Hotel, a deal was signed that would send shockwaves through the sport. At 1:30 a.m., the Texas Rangers inked a deal with the then 25-year-old Alex Rodriguez for 10 years and $252 million. The biggest contract in sports history at the time. Executives were fuming, some threatening that this would destroy baseball.

The executives worried that it would push the sport into an arms race of out-of-control contracts, leaving smaller market teams in the dust. The fallout from that deal would last years. One respected GM was fired within a year. A few years after that, the owner of the Rangers had to sell the team, overwhelmed by financial woes tied to the massive contract. Fast forward 24 years to the same hotel, and history repeated itself, but this time, it wasn’t a 25-year-old shortstop—it was a 26-year-old outfielder.

Juan Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets. The baseball world was, once again, left in shock. Smaller market teams were having flashbacks to the A-Rod deal. They feared that this new record deal was just the latest sign that the game was becoming more fractured by the day: Could the sport survive this kind of financial trouble? Was a work stoppage in the near future inevitable?