Free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira has reached agreement with the New York Yankees on an eight-year contract worth more than $170 million, two sources involved in the negotiations tell ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.
The Yankees swooped in on the 28-year-old Teixeira on Tuesday when it was believed the Boston Red Sox or the Washington Nationals were the likeliest to be his future employer. The Red Sox's offer was believed to be in the range of $170 million, and the Nationals reached out with an offer perhaps greater than that of Boston.
Teixeira finished last season with the Los Angeles Angels following a trade from Atlanta. The Angels withdrew from negotiations on Sunday night, in a very public manner, and say they were moving on to other players.
They say that if you have any skill in baseball, your contract doesn't expire. You become property of the New York Yankees. Man, is that starting to ring true this year, with the Brewers, Blue Jays, and Angels having their best players pack their bags for the Bronx.
Pencil them in for 100 wins this year. That's about $2 to 3 million per win! What a bargain!
This (sports.espn.go.com) was just reported by Buster Olney, and was picked up on a few sites (CNNSI.com also). I really didn't think that the Yanks would do make a serious play after signing AJ and CC to huge money, in addition to making the deal for Swisher. My guess is that they'll deal Damon or Matsui, whoever might take one (near-impossible), and go with Swish/Damon or Godzilla in LF/DH.
I really didn't think Teixeira was the kind of player that a team should throw this kind of money at. He's a nice player and one of the better ones in the game, but he's not a $180 million dollar player.
On one hand it's stupid that the Yanks can just throw this kind of money at people, on the other the Yanks are stupid to throw this kind of money at people.
Well he did put up decent numbers with the Angels. The new Yankee Stadium needs big names to sell the tickets. He was the best first basemen (which they needed) and he has a strong bat (which they needed), so the deal makes sense. I am just not sure I'd pay out THAT much for him.
This might be the most appropriate thread title in The W history. I read the title and wasn't sure who It's False could be talking about. Then I saw the NY thread icon and immediately shouted "AW COME ON!!!!" Just ridiculous. And add me to the list of people who don't think he's worth $180 mil.
Nice signing by the Yankees, but I'm not crowning them yet. Except for the 4 playoff games with the Angels, Teixiera hasn't been in pressure situations, as the Angels had already blown away the division by the time they received him from the Braves. Plus, Manny's bat would have scared me more than Teixeira does. If you go out on the limb that the Yankees will extend Jeter soon, they are going to have between $80-90 million tied up in 3 infield players in the middle of the decade who should be on the decline of their careers.
The Yanks are going into another spending frenzy. I agree with redsoxnation. ManRam would have been a better bat for the Evil Empire to pick up, and I'm really not sure if Tex is worth that kind of money.
I have a theory. The Yankees are going after all these guys now to try to win one more title before King George passes away. We all know he's in terrible health. It's the only reason I can think of outside of trying to stick it to the Sox.
All this money they are spending is a double-edged sword at the same time. If the Yankees win it all, everyone will say they should have because they spent $250-300 million. If they lose, everyone will blast them for spending all that money for no reason. Anything short of a World Series title is a failure now.
The Governor says he hopes you're a twitcher! OH YES!!!
Originally posted by Packman V2Another big name and big contract, and more reason laugh when all that payroll doesn't get them in the playoffs, much less a world title.
Seriously, people should relax about this. The Yankees haven't been in the World Series in five years and haven't won it in eight. The Boston Red Sox, the next-highest spending team, have won two World Series titles in the past 90 years. So obviously spending all this extra money isn't too great of an advantage. Just look at what the Rays did. Didn't Tampa Bay have the second-lowest payroll in baseball? And they're in a division with the top two spending teams in the sport.
The last time the Yankees were winning World Series crowns, they did it with a batch of homegrown players and a few well-thought-out free agent signings. This buy-to-make-it-stop-bleeding mentality has been bad for the Yankees and good for everyone else.
Originally posted by Packman V2Another big name and big contract, and more reason laugh when all that payroll doesn't get them in the playoffs, much less a world title.
Seriously, people should relax about this. The Yankees haven't been in the World Series in five years and haven't won it in eight. The Boston Red Sox, the next-highest spending team, have won two World Series titles in the past 90 years. So obviously spending all this extra money isn't too great of an advantage. Just look at what the Rays did. Didn't Tampa Bay have the second-lowest payroll in baseball? And they're in a division with the top two spending teams in the sport.
The last time the Yankees were winning World Series crowns, they did it with a batch of homegrown players and a few well-thought-out free agent signings. This buy-to-make-it-stop-bleeding mentality has been bad for the Yankees and good for everyone else.
While true it also throws the rest of the market so far out of whack that teams like Tampa Bay only have a 3 year window at most to win with the team they have before letting their players go to one of the major cities.
Originally posted by TheBucsFan. The Boston Red Sox, the next-highest spending team, have won two World Series titles in the past 90 years.
That's one way to look at it. The other is that they've won two World Series titles in the last four years. They're doing something right.
-- 2006 Time magazine Person of the Year --
"...Oh, the band is out on the field!! He's gonna go into the end zone! He's gone into the end zone!! -- Joe Starkey -- November 20, 1982 -- The Play --
Originally posted by TheBucsFan. The Boston Red Sox, the next-highest spending team, have won two World Series titles in the past 90 years.
That's one way to look at it. The other is that they've won two World Series titles in the last four years. They're doing something right.
They didn't actually win it until Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz had all been there for several years and were surrounded by other players who weren't making a billion dollars a year. By 2004, they had stopped resembling a collection of overpaid free agents and actually looked like a team. Same in 2007 - sure Pedro and Manny were gone, but Ortiz and several other guys from the 2004 squad were still the heart of the team, and the new faces were not all the kind of overpaid superstars the Yankees go after.
And that's being pretty generous, only using the past four years to judge a trend that spans decades. By your logic, the Philadelphia Phillies at the moment are the best-run organization in baseball history, I guess.
Originally posted by TheBucsFan And that's being pretty generous, only using the past four years to judge a trend that spans decades.
It makes more sense to compare recent history than the fortunes of the team NINETY YEARS ago. What does it matter how Boston was in the 1910s?
I have always favored comparing recent history than the past. Yeah, the Yankees won 26 WSs, but only five were in the last 30 years, while their first 16(!) were in a 30 year span from 1923-1953. The amount of teams, style of play, and pool of players were much different then. To use a 90 year span, you could argue that PRINCETON is a football powerhouse with their 28 national championships between 1869-1959. But, like I said, using that comparison is crazy, especially since college players only stick around for 3-4 years. There is a 100% completely different team every 4-5 years.
Let us assume that, on average, no current baseball player has been on the roster of their current team for more than 10 years, and we'll use those last 10 years to look at recent successes. Winning two WSs in 10 years puts Boston one behind the Yankees (1998-2000). Not too bad.
The Yankees, while having the most WSs wins, have an eight year slump. Boston's two wins in a three year period is something that hasn't been done since the Yankees 98-00 wins. I still think they're doing something right
By your logic, the Philadelphia Phillies at the moment are the best-run organization in baseball history, I guess.
And winning the World Series is bad, how? Are you saying by them winning the World Series, they are the worst run organization? They won the World Series. That makes them the best team this year. Maybe you'd feel better if they were voted number one, instead? (Just joking. I just read an article on Yahoo where they awarded a national title to a high school football team. Don't get me started as to how stupid that is...)
My four (or ten, even) year span may be too conservative, but your 90 year span is way too liberal.
-- 2006 Time magazine Person of the Year --
"...Oh, the band is out on the field!! He's gonna go into the end zone! He's gone into the end zone!! -- Joe Starkey -- November 20, 1982 -- The Play --
Saying the second-highest spending team has only won twice in 90 years is meaningless, because the Red Sox haven't been such a high spending team for so long.
There's no question that in the free agency era, high spending teams have outperformed low spending ones, is there?
Originally posted by Peter The HegemonThere's no question that in the free agency era, high spending teams have outperformed low spending ones, is there?
Yes, but not by spending it the way the Yankees do right now. Only by spending it the way the Yankees did during their most recent World Series run.
The Red Sox spend a ton of money, but they spent it by investing in their team rather than changing the middle of their lineup every season, and that's the attitude that finally won them the World Series.
Of course the Red Sox have not been the second-highest spending team forever. But they've been the second-highest spending team, or very close to it, for more than four years. Why didn't they win a Series before 2004? The Yankees weren't winning it all those years.
Money by itself doesn't win titles in baseball. It never has. The Red Sox’s World Series success is very, very recent, and it's a result of the same fiscal philosophy that won the Yankees their Series titles. The Yankees got away from it, and they stopped winning.
So is your point that money does win titles in baseball? Because that's the only point I've made, and two World Series titles in three years — when the Marlins, Rays, Angels, Rockies, Tigers and Phillies have all been in the World Series in recent years despite not spending nearly as much as the Red Sox and Yankees — doesn't really disprove it.
Originally posted by Peter The Hegemon There's no question that in the free agency era, high spending teams have outperformed low spending ones, is there?
Nobody is saying that small-market teams can't win. The argument is that Boston and NYY are able to be competitive every single year due to their lack of financial restraints. The Yankees haven't been under .500 since 1992. The Red Sox have had one sub-.500 season since 1995. Even if they don't win, they're always in the hunt.
Don't get me wrong - I'm SUPER-EXCITED for this trade, but that was the same line of thinking about Felix and Erik Bedard, and that didn't bring anybody any rings.