Buster Olney reports that the Yankees have landed Mark Teixeira. 8 years, $170M. It appears that was the highest offer Teixeira got, which made the choice of teams pretty damn easy. The Nationals apparently had the second highest offer (yeahright) and the O’s came in at only $140M. (Nice effort for the hometown boy.) The Red Sox and Angels bowed out of the bidding the last few days.
(Teixeira’s wife Leigh soon to look into Bernie Madoff’s foreclosed digs?)
So what does this mean for Manny Ramirez? In all likelihood, his final resting place will be in the Los Angeles. But you know what, it might not be with the Dodgers.
Some in SoCal will now speculate that Arte Moreno will step up his pace in the run for Ramireez, especially considering signing the slugger would be a direct sling at Frank McCourt’s Dodgers.
More likely, because of Moreno’s disdain for Scott Boras (memba the Jared Weaver draft-sign debacle, among other contentious negotiations?), I think Moreno’ll probably pass on Manny as well. That leaves to the Dodgers as the only team overly interested in Ramirez’s services at the moment.
The Yankees were the one team out there seemingly intent on offering Ramirez an option-less 3-year deal. Now the chance of that happening is zero. The Dodgers might just snag Ramirez for two years and a option after all, which of course means just two years.
But in order to save face, I think we’re in for a long wait from Boras and Ramirez. Wouldn’t surprise me now if the outfielder is teamless going into Spring Training.
4:11 pm on December 23rd, 2008
The Yanks sign another high-priced player. How surprising.
4:31 pm on December 23rd, 2008
we now return to our regularly scheduled dynasty
4:50 pm on December 23rd, 2008
So much for the Yankees worried about payroll. Hope you Yanks fans enjoy your new $100 bleacher seats.
5:57 pm on December 23rd, 2008
I still don't fully believe the Yanks are done trying to get Manny. That's just not the Steinbrenner way. Even if it's Hank in charge.
8:30 pm on December 23rd, 2008
Well, Mark was getting tired of appearing in the post-season, anyway.
9:30 pm on December 24th, 2008
The Red Sox will be tough this year because I believe they'll sign Lowe and use one of their other pitchers to trade for catcher Joe Mauer or a decent shortstop. Then Tito will rally the troops to get 25 guys playing out of their minds for 162 games. If some of the Yanks underperform — which they seem to do every year — then it'll be time to warm up the duck boats and blow up the balloons for another parade for the team of the decade.
9:33 pm on December 24th, 2008
Also, I was checking out Teixeira's wife and is that all you get when you're earning $180 million? She's cute, but she can't hang with the elite layer of the SbB girls.
7:22 am on December 25th, 2008
So now that the Yanks have a better rotation, lineup, bullpen, fans and Uniforms than the Dead Sox, and can fit Fenway into the players clubhouse at the new Ball Park, I say we applaud the Beantown team for a very good, (albeit short) lived run as a Ball club! Now get outta the way for another 80 years while we run that World Champion total to the Century Mark!