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Red Sox Likely Post-Season Opponents Continue To Improve… Angels Land Braves 1B Teixeira
By Administrator | July 29, 2008
On Saturday, the NY Yankees filled two glaring holes when obtained OF Xavier Nady and lefty reliever Damaso Marte from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for 4 mid-level minor league prospects. This afternoon, the Los Angeles Angels obtained the biggest bat on the trade market when they obtained 1B Mark Teixeira from the Atlanta Braves for 1B Casey Kotchman and minor league pitcher Stephen Marek.
Until the last few days, there had been a lot of uncertainty as to whether the Braves would be buyers or sellers at this year’s trade deadline since they were still within an arms length of first place. But after losing long-time ace John Smoltz for the season back in June, the Braves learned this weekend that current ace Tim Hudson (11-7, 3.17) will almost-certainly miss the remainder of the 2008 season with damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow… additionally, they placed 3B Chipper Jones (.369, 18 HR, 55 RBI) on the disabled list with a hamstring injury.
The writing was on the wall.
With the decision seemingly made for GM Frank Wren, the Braves became sellers and started peddling their soon-to-be free agents — most notably, Teixeira. Over the last twenty-four hours, speculation had centered around a Braves - Diamondbacks trade, with the apparent hang-up being the D-Backs’ unwillingness to send power-hitting 1B Conor Jackson eastward.
And so, the Braves front office began looking for a new dance partner… enter Angels GM Tony Reagins.
The move came as somewhat of a surprise across baseball, as first base did not appear to be an area of desperate need for the Halos. Although he is not your prototypical power-hitting corner infielder, Kotchman is a defensive dynamo (having committed only five errors in his last 279 games). He is still only 25 years old and his offense appears to be coming along… after hitting a career-high .296 last season with a .839 OPS, he was hitting .287, with a career-high 12 HR and 54 RBI at the time of the trade.
But Reagins wants to win a World Series and decided to go for it, so he called Wren and the two GMs played “Let’s Make A Deal”. Reportedly, the Braves initially told Los Angeles they wanted Kotchman, pitching prospect Nick Adenhart and another prospect for Teixeira; but Reagins, like the Diamondbacks before him, drew a line in the sand. Wren, knowing he was receiving a good young first baseman who will be under his control until after the 2011 season, agreed to Reagins’ proposal.
In Teixeira, the Angels have obtained a first baseman who has produced in the American League and who has averaged .291, with 35 HR and an .927 OPS over the last four seasons. In his 157 games in the National League, “Tex” hit 37 home runs and drove in more runs (134) than any player in the major leagues whose name isn’t Ryan Howard.
This is the second consecutive year that the free-agent-to-be has been dealt at the trading deadline (last year he was traded by Texas in exchange for C/1B Jarrod Saltalamacchia).
After the trade was announced, the new Angels first baseman said: “Hopefully I can just go over there and be one more piece of the puzzle… They have the best team in baseball. I’m not going to go over there to make them any different, other than just hopefully add a few more runs”.
The Angels have the best record in baseball at 65-40, but their offense ranks ninth in the American League in runs scored, 10th in slugging percentage, and 11th in on-base percentage. GM Reagins said: “We are pleased to bring Mark into the Angels family. He is a tremendous player and we feel he will impact our club in a very positive way”.
The Angels didn’t ask the Braves for a window to negotiate an extension with Teixeira, but they’re expected to make a significant effort to sign him to a long-term deal this winter. The slugger is a client of Scott Boras, who is determined to take his client into free agency as both the NY Mets and NY Yankees — large market clubs that will both open new stadiums in 2009 — will be in need of a first baseman. And now, so will the Angels — another large market team.
Can you say, ka-ching?
Early rumblings are that Boras’ initial asking price will be in the neighborhood of 10 years, $230 million.
Teixeira said there was time when he would have bypassed the possibility of free agency to sign with Atlanta: “I was always open for it. This whole year I was open for it, but that’s business. It just didn’t work out. I loved it here, I really did. I wanted to stay here for the rest of my career, but business is business. Sometimes you have to move on and I’m looking forward to moving on to LA”.
Marek was drafted in the fortieth round of the ‘04 draft. He was converted into a reliever this season with Arkansas, where he was 2-6, with a 3.66 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings.
Topics: Around Baseball |
