Alex Rodriguez's major issue with Yankees teammates highlighted by MLB insider

In team sports, cohesion is key, something Alex Rodriguez didn't do often, according to one MLB insider. Rodriguez's arrival to the New York Yankees in 2004 was one of the most controversial moves in baseball history.

After winning the American League MVP with the Texas Rangers in 2003, A-Rod was traded to the Yankees in a blockbuster deal that sent Alfonso Soriano to Texas. At the time, Rodriguez was widely regarded as the best all-around player in the game.

In Monday's episode of Pinstripe Sports, MLB insider Joel Sherman shed light on A-Rod's inability to fully trust his teammates during his time with the Yankees.

"It’s hard to be more talented than Alex Rodriguez," Sherman said (33:01 onwards). "And in Alex's time with the Yankees, you could see in a lot of situations where he thought, 'If I don't do it, we won't win.' He didn’t trust the group enough, or he wanted to be the star so much that it didn’t matter what he thought of the group."

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Alex Rodriguez's time with the Yankees and his relationship with Derek Jeter

Alex Rodriguez was moved to third base since Derek Jeter was already the team's staple and starting shortstop. His arrival in a big market like Big Apple meant that the spotlight was brighter in New York than it was in Seattle or Texas.

Rodriguez's early years with the Yankees were productive on the field, but on the outside, he had his differences with the former Yankees captain Derek Jeter. In a 2001 Esquire interview, A-Rod had made sharp comments against Jeter, whom he found unworthy to lead the Yankees.

However, later in the 2007 interview, he said that his feud with Jetrer was blown out of proportion.

"People start assuming that things are a lot worse than what they are, which they're not. But they're obviously not as great as they used to be," Ross said. "We were like blood brothers."

In the 2009 postseason, A-Rod delivered clutch performances that helped the Yankees win their 27th World Series championship — his first.

Teammates publicly praised his growth and focus. But his later years were again clouded by controversy, especially surrounding PED use and the Biogenesis scandal, leading to a season-long suspension in 2014.