The Giants lavish a record-breaking contract on the game's best hitter. They ignore murmurs that he doesn't get along with teammates. They build their entire franchise plan around him. And they stay wedded to him past his prime, determined to watch him break the all-time home run record while wearing their uniform.

Barry Bonds is on his way out of San Francisco. Could Alex Rodriguez be on the way in?

There's no better time to ask the question than right now. The two men, and perhaps the Giants' present and future, will intersect Friday when Rodriguez and the New York Yankees arrive at AT&T Park for a rare interleague series.

"I consider him the best in the game," Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel said. "In the 20 years I've been around baseball, I don't think I've seen a player as complete as him except Ken Griffey Jr. before he started getting hurt. He's going to do some amazing things."

But for what team? Rodriguez can void the final three years and $72 million on his contract this winter. Given his MVP numbers this year (he leads the majors in runs, home runs and RBI), some agents believe Rodriguez will get a new deal worth more than $30 million per season, and for perhaps as many as eight years.

The dollars are dizzying, but the Giants have spun this wheel before. They charted the course for their franchise in 1993, when they gave Bonds $43.75 million over six years — the biggest contract the game had seen.

While it's easy to bash the Giants for their strategy of building around one megastar, it worked pretty well before Bonds turned 40. The Giants posted eight consecutive winning seasons from 1997-2004, winning three division titles and advancing to the World Series as the wild card entrant in `02.

This probably will be the winter the Giants usher Bonds out of the theater, and as luck would have it, Rodriguez is poised for a remake of "Escape from New York."

The Giants need a new offensive centerpiece, and with Vizquel and third baseman Pedro Feliz about to hit free agency, they could let Rodriguez pick where he wants to play.

The Giants warmed up to Rodriguez's agent, Scott Boras, this winter when they made Barry Zito the priciest pitcher in history for $126 million over seven years.

But if the Giants made a splash with Zito, signing Rodriguez would be a full cannonball.

Boras could ask for even more than $30 million a year. A few months ago, the agent pointed out to the Associated Press that because Rodriguez signed his still-biggest-ever $252 million contract with Texas in 2001, baseball's revenues have doubled to $6 billion per year.

Despite more controversy in New York, including a New York Post photo spread showing him getting into a hotel elevator with a woman who wasn't his wife, Rodriguez has re-established himself as the game's best player.

Bonds might be seven home runs away from tying Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755, but several of his teammates believe the Giants star won't be the home run king as much as its steward. Rodriguez will probably pass them all.

`He's the guy to do it," Giants catcher Bengie Molina said. "Consistency, that's the word. He doesn't get hurt, he plays the game hard, he plays the game right and he comes out every single year to be the best player out there."

Said Zito: "For sure. If he stays healthy, he's going to do some incredible things, and he already has."

Bonds agrees, too. In April, he said he would cheer for Rodriguez to break every home run record.

"Hell, yeah," Bonds said. "Because, man, that's what the game's about. It's exciting and it brings people to the stadium. Somebody else does it, that's awesome. Go on, A-Rod, do your damn thing. I don't care what anybody says. Keep that look in your eye, because it's solid."

Rodriguez enters the series with 491 home runs and could join the 500 club before he turns 32 on July 27. Jimmie Foxx ranks as the youngest player to hit 500 homers, at 32 years and 338 days old. Bonds was 36 years and 269 days old.

Rodriguez has averaged 41.7 home runs over the past 11 seasons. Beginning this year, it would take hitting an average of 42 home runs over eight years to achieve 800 career homers.

Rodriguez has a chance to set all-time records because he started producing at a high level at a young age. Nobody knows that better than Vizquel, who was with the Seattle Mariners a year before Rodriguez made his debut with them as an 18-year-old in 1994.

"He didn't look like he was whatever age he was," Vizquel said. "He looked already like a mature, 26-year-old baseball player when he came to Seattle and took my job."