BOSTON – On paper, few free agents this offseason will match skill set to needs of a team nearly as well as Mark Teixeira does with the Yankees.
After Jason Giambi’s walrus-on-skates act, the Yanks crave a first baseman who is more than a non-throwing statue. Teixeira is a two-time Gold Glover. Mark Connor, a pitching coach in Texas when Teixeira was a Ranger, said, Teixeira “is right there with [Don] Mattingly defensively.”
A key element of the Joe Torre dynasty years was having switch-hitters with power and patience from both sides of the plate, notably Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada. The switch-hitting Teixeira is so consistent from both sides that his career slugging percentage is .541 vs. both righties and lefties.
The Yanks need to return to players who grind out at-bats, are in their prime and have durability. That is check, check, check for Teixeira, who will turn 29 next April and drew two walks last night. The second one sparked a two-out, none-on rally in the eighth that helped the Angels tie ALDS Game 4.
Teixeira also made a diving catch in the ninth to rob Mark Kotsay of the potential game-winning RBI single. But Jed Lowrie followed on the next pitch with a two-out, RBI single that produced a 3-2 win that sent the Red Sox to an ALCS showdown against Tampa Bay.
That moved Teixeira one step closer to free agency. But is it one step closer to hitting in front of Alex Rodriguez as he has hit in front of Vlad Guerrero since a late July trade to the Angels?
It is hard to find Yankees officials juiced up to chase Teixeira. Perhaps they don’t want to give his agent, Scott Boras, further leverage. It is amazing how many executives say almost verbatim that: “Teixeira is the ultimate Boras client.”
Translation: Teixeira will go to the team that gives him the most. Period.
Again, that usually is no problem with the Yankees. So why would it be here? Two reasons mainly:
1. Boras’ asking price will be in the 10-year, $200 million range. The industry expectation is Teixeira will come in at six-to-eight years in the $120 million-$160 million area at the same time GM Brian Cashman is trying to break the Yankees’ pathology of giving such mega-deals to make a current problem vanish. Would the Yanks be greatly improved in 2009 with Teixeira? Of course.
Giambi’s seven-year deal looked fine in 2002, but not so good last year when the Yanks were loaded with past-their-prime DHs. Now Giambi’s pact has expired and Cashman is hesitant to tie up the money again on a corner player, when he must find a center fielder and starting pitching, too. Cashman can imagine a near future in which Teixeira, A-Rod, Derek Jeter and Posada may all need first base/DH at-bats while exhausting about 40 percent of even a $200 million payroll.
2. Teixeira has a mixed reputation. He has much in common with A-Rod. He is diligent about staying in shape year-round, is durable and works hard on all facets of his game. But his detractors – and there are more than a few – say that, like A-Rod, Teixeira is an accumulator who feasts on bad pitching, does his best work when his team is way ahead or behind, and is a corporation unto himself who does not mesh seamlessly with the clubhouse culture. Essentially the overall numbers are better than the total package.
“The statistics will be there, but this is not a player who will make anyone else on the team better,” said a former teammate of Teixeira’s. “The numbers indicate an elite player, but if you watch him every day you will realize he is a very good player, not elite.”
The Yanks must decide how far they will go to land such a player. The Angels, according to GM Tony Reagins, will try to retain Teixeira, and the expectation is the Red Sox and Orioles (Teixeira is from Annapolis, Md.) also will be factors.
The considerations can grow in seriousness now. The Yanks’ AL East superiors – Tampa Bay and Boston – will play in the ALCS. The Yanks must decide if Teixeira is truly the perfect fit to help them play catch up in the division.