The New York Yankees got their man, again. By throwing even more money around, they’ve now landed Mark Teixeira for a whopping eight-year, $180-million deal. Honestly, I’m just happy that the Red Sox didn’t sign him. While the Yanks needed a big bat at first base to move Nick Swisher to a corner outfield spot, the Sox would have had four guys (Tex, Ortiz, Youkilis and Lowell) to play three positions (DH, 1B and 3B). What sense would that make to spend Tex-money for an extra piece?
Quickly, if you ever believed for a second that the Orioles and Nationals had a shot at Teixeira, well you don’t know much about baseball. Guys will only take hometown discounts if it’s towards the end of their career of if they’ve built a rapport with a team they’ve been with for a long time. They won’t turn down hundreds of millions of dollars in their prime because they were born near Baltimore.
Now, the Bronx can bat A-Rod and Tex back-to-back and have two of the best hitters in the league powering their lineup. But who bats in the cleanup spot? Who will drive in more runs? This move might actually make Tex a bit less valuable fantasy-wise since A-Rod will hoard some of the potential RBIs.
The most ridiculous part of this signing is that they still have cash available to spend! After losing several big contracts from their last wave of ludicrous spending, the team has said it would like to stay at the $210 million payroll range. Basically, they’re fine with paying another $25M-plus of luxury tax next year. That tax sure did a great deal in levelling the playing field, eh?