Teixeira Sets His Price
Tough loss for the Yankees and Chien-Ming Wang. But, what can you do? They ran into an extremely hot pitcher and their offense just couldn’t produce. Wang didn’t have his best stuff on the mound either, walking 3 batters (which came back to hurt him).
Anyways, let’s talk about the future of first base.
From Jon Heyman (SI):
Teixeira won’t name his price publicly. But someone who follows the markets and Boras predicts that the asking price could begin with “2’s” as in $20 million per year and $200 million total.
Scott Boras and Mark Teixeria could not have picked a better time to head into the open market. With the Yankees and the Mets likely to fight for Teixeira’s services, you can be sure that Big Tex will get his long awaited payday, although a 10-year, 20-million dollar deal seems like a stretch for the 29-year old. It’ll be the years that matter in this deal. The Yankees wont blink at spending $20-million per for Teixeira, as the money won’t be a problem with Giambi, Pavano, Mussina, all coming off the books.
Even Teixeira knows that the Yanks are going to be interested:
“These are things to talk about at the end of the season,” Teixeira says. “I’m not going to make any predictions. I’m enjoying playing in Atlanta … and there’s no doubt this organization is a winning organization. When I become a free agent, Atlanta’s definitely in the mix.”
How about his hometown Orioles?
“The Orioles are close to my heart,” Teixeira admitted.
“I have family in Baltimore,” he continued. “But I have family in Georgia. And I have family in New York.” (Teixeira’s sister Elizabeth Durastanti and her husband Nick live in Hoboken, N.J. and work in New York City.)
Yeah, he could be talking about either team, the Mets or the Yankees, but for our sake, let’s assume he’s talking about the Yanks. In terms of other suitors for Teixeira’s services, the Mariners seem like a team that could definitely get into the race, and they could resign Sexson (he’ll be a FA) and then slot him in the DH role (or they can just lose his sorry ass), opening up first base for Tex. Of course, they’d have to come up with the money to keep him as well. Heyman lists the Red Sox as a possible fit, but how that works, I have no idea. With Youkilis and Lowell, the Sox are pretty much set with their lineup.
After seeing Giambi at first this year, I’m looking forward to the day Tex becomes a FA. Brian Cashman and Hank Steinbrenner are probably waiting too, but the happiest guy will definitely be Scott Boras Mark Teixeira.
