Red Sox Still Suffering From Failure to Sign Mark Teixeira
With news breaking today that Mike Lowell will retire and Adrian Gonzalez will be staying in San Diego this offseason, fans are once again left to wonder who will man the corner infield spots for the Red Sox in 2011.
Had the Red Sox signed Mark Teixeira in 2008, no such questions would remain.
As the general manager of one of the most prominent franchises in baseball, Theo Epstein takes more than his fair share of grief. His brilliant moves — such as the acquisition of David Ortiz or extensions of Jon Lester and Dustin Pedroia — are often overlooked. Meanwhile his regrettable decisions — like the trades for Edgar Renteria or Coco Crisp — are referenced constantly on sports-talk radio and baseball blogs everywhere.
But while not all of Epstein’s moves deserve such harsh criticism, one call that clearly continues to haunt the Red Sox is the decision to not match the Yankees’ eight-year, $180 million offer for Teixeira during the 2008 offseason.
Few players with Teixeira’s skill, track record and youth reach free-agency in today’s MLB. A switch-hitting, Gold Glove-caliber first baseman, Teixeira is one of the most well-rounded players in baseball. At the time of his free-agency, he had amassed 203 home runs, a .290 career batting average and 676 RBIs, at just 28 years of age.
In his two years with the Yankees, he’s added 69 home runs and 277 RBIs to those totals, and has already won a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger award and finished second in MVP voting. Teixeira has proven to be extremely durable as well, missing just eight games last season and just three so far in 2010.
For the better part of five-and-a-half seasons, Red Sox fans witnessed one of the best back-to-back lineup threats in baseball history in David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. While almost no duo could match their extraordinary production, the tandem of Kevin Youkilis and Teixeira may have come close.
In Youkilis, the Red Sox have a player who is similar to Teixeira in both offensive and defensive value. He lacks Teixeira’s mammoth power, but gets on base more often and brings multi-position versatility to the table as well. But Youkilis has been provided little in the way of protection since Teixeira signed with New York, and has frequently relied on the likes of Lowell or Ortiz to support him in the line-up.
Instead, it is now the Yankees who have their own fearsome three-four combination in Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez — a force they will have for at least the next six seasons.
Perhaps it’s unfair to criticize the Red Sox for their failure to sign Teixeira. Money may not have been Teixeira’s only motivator, as he later revealed that his wife, Leigh, reportedly preferred New York to Boston. And although Teixeira has proven to be extremely valuable throughout the first quarter of his mega-contract, there’s no way to guarantee his deal won’t look like a near-sighted move in 2016.
But as it stands right now, the Yankees are set at the infield corners for the next half-decade, while the Red Sox must once again scramble to find a first or third baseman this offseason.
Perhaps Adrian Beltre will take a hometown discount and provide Boston with a long-term answer at third. And maybe Lars Anderson will live up to expectations and start mashing at first, allowing Youkilis to move back across the diamond. Or maybe the Red Sox will swing a deal for a big-time slugger such as Prince Fielder, and sacrifice defense for power.
None of those players is as valuable as Teixeira, though. Few players in baseball are.
And even fewer ever make it to the open market.
