Around Baseball: Angels Pull Out Of Teixeira Sweepstakes |

« Around Baseball: NY Times Reporting That Yankees Are Unwilling To Meet Boras’ Demands On Teixeira | Home | This Day In Baseball History: December 22nd (Federal Lg and MLB Declare Peace) »

Around Baseball: Angels Pull Out Of Teixeira Sweepstakes

By Administrator | December 21, 2008

According to several published reports, the Los Angeles Angels have officially withdrawn their offer to free agent Mark Teixeira and have declared themselves OUT of the bidding for the first baseman.

UPDATE: The report was confirmed late this afternoon by team spokesman Tim Mead, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Agent Scott Boras has been trying to get interested teams, most notably the Angels and Boston Red Sox, bidding against one another for the last few weeks — without much success. He has also tried to get the NY Yankees involved, hoping that the spectre of Teixeira signing with Boston would cause New York to leap into the fray… but those efforts seem to have been fruitless.

Boras appears to have tried to bluff the Red Sox with respect to a phantom offer / team during face-to-face negotiations in Houston, TX, on Thursday. Boston owner John W Henry called his bluff and walked out of the room, later sending an email to the media declaring that his team would not be a factor in Teixeira’s future.

After it became clear his bluff had been exposed publicly, Boras called each of the teams in the derby on Friday in an attempt to leverage further offers.

The attempt at saving face appears to have been unsuccessful and, in fact, may have backfired. It is very possible that the Angels, knowing Teixeira would prefer to play on the east coast, understood he (Boras) has simply been using them to drive up the price on the Red Sox, or anyone else on the east coast. It is possible that LA owner Arte Moreno and GM Tony Reagins put all of the pieces together (Teixeira’s preference for the east, the weeks of delay, the effort to engage the Yankees, the stunt with the Red Sox on Thursday, the brazen solicitation on Friday) and finally said “enough is enough!”

It is possible that Boras got caught over-playing his hand.

And so now it appears likely that the Angels will turn their attentions to Manny Ramirez, and possibly closer Brian Fuentes (or Trevor Hoffman)… and that the Red Sox will stand as the sole serious team with championship aspirations left in the Teixeira sweepstakes.

You can bet that Boras has already put a call into Yankees GM Brian Cashman. You can also bet that Teixeira’s name will be on a Red Sox contract VERY quickly if the Yankees don’t enter the fray quickly because you KNOW Teixeira wants to play for a contender.

Topics: Around Baseball |

One Response to “Around Baseball: Angels Pull Out Of Teixeira Sweepstakes”

Mike Robinson Says:
December 21st, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Sorry, but the team that will get Teixiera will be the team that pays the most. Playing for a contender, east coast/west coast and how his wife or family likes the area means absolutely nothing. Baseball is ruled by money and a player’s union that won’t celebrate any player taking the second best offer. Period.

My thought is that Big Tex will wrap something up shortly before Xmas and it will be a whopper of a deal with a spin on whoever gets him as (a) a team with incredible promise for 2009; (b) an extremely lucrative offer and (c) a team that “stepped up to the plate and wanted a hitter in his prime”. The reality is that whatever team gets him bid at least $1 more than the one who didn’t.

If the Sox get him, fantastic. If they don’t, I won’t be too heartbroken. We finished in the post-season last year and came within a game of the World Series. The biggest need in the offense is Papi insurance in case his best days are behind him. Remember that our lineup last year has Tek’s worst year and not exactly Nomar’s stats at the SS position, plus an injured Lowell.