Heyman’s Latest: Teixeira, Otsuka

Jon Heyman of SI.com has been working the phone lines; here are some notable rumors from his latest column.

• The Braves seemed fairly close to a Mark Teixeira trade yesterday, but the Angels are definitely knee deep in it.  They’ll make a solid offer including Casey Kotchman, Ervin Santana, and Major League player.  Adam Dunn remains Plan B.
• Heyman says there’s speculation that Akinori Otsuka could need Tommy John surgery, which might compel the Rangers to sign Eric Gagne and/or keep Joaquin Benoit.
• Refresher on Gagne’s 12-team allowable list can be found here.  Gagne must consent to a trade to Detroit, and it seems the Rangers asked for Cameron Maybin.  Not gonna happen.  The Yankees appear to be out on Gagne because he wants to close.  I’m skeptical – he wouldn’t pitch as a setup man if they guaranteed his entire contract?
• Seems the Yanks entertained a Morgan Ensberg acquisition.  They would’ve used him at first base.  Joe Torre nixed the idea because Ensberg hasn’t hit for a long time.
• Heyman’s top five available starters are Matt Morris, Livan Hernandez, Jose Contreras, Jason Jennings, and Kyle Lohse, in that order.  That ranking is reasonable.  A Jon Garland, Noah Lowry, or Joe Blanton would easily jump to that top of the list if made available.