Alex Rodriguez will still be on the Texas Rangers' books for quite a while. Rangers' General Manager Jon Daniels said Wednesday the team must fund the original $9 million in deferred payments Rodriguez was owed for the remainder of the $252 million, 10-year contract he signed with the team before the 2001 season. That money, $3 million for each of the next three seasons, was reconfigured into an assignment bonus at the time of A-Rod's 2004 trade to the New York Yankees. "Anything that was part of the assignment bonus is considered earned at the time to the trade," Daniels said. That means Rodriguez walked away from $72 million when he opted out of the contract: salaries of $24 million owed by the Yankees in each of the next three seasons.