The Yankees announced a 3pm press conference with first baseman Mark Teixeira today, and while they didn’t list a reason for the call in their press release, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports (via Twitter) that Teixeira is expected to announce his retirement, effective at the end of the current season.
Teixeira, 36, expressed an interest in playing long beyond the current season earlier this year but has battled through torn cartilage in his right knee and some minor neck and foot issues this year while struggling at the plate. The switch-hitting slugger is in the final season of a huge eight-year, $180MM contract and is batting .198/.287/.340 with 10 homers on the season. Of course, one only needs to look at the 2015 campaign to find the most recent season in which Teixeira was not just an above-average performer but one of the more impressive sluggers in all the league. Tex swatted 31 home runs in 2015 and slashed a hefty .255/.357/.548 on the year, which translated to an adjusted OPS that was 46 percent better than the league-average hitter. While he hasn’t played up to his standards this season, Teixeira did crack his 400th career home run this year — becoming just the 55th player to ever reach that lofty total.
The 2016 season, it seems, will be the final chapter in what has been one of the most productive careers since the turn of the century. Teixeira was the fifth overall pick out of Georgia Tech back in 2001 and spent just one season in the minors before debuting with the Rangers in 2003 and never looking back. He’d finish fifth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting that season and go on to win five Gold Glove Awards and three Silver Slugger Awards in a 14-year Major League career. Somewhat surprisingly, Teixeira has only been an All-Star on three occasions, but his track record of dominance at the plate suggests that he probably should’ve participated in the Midsummer Classic on a few more occasions.
From 2004-11, Texiera was one of the more feared hitters in the league, batting .284/.377/.537 with per-season averages of 36 home runs, 37 doubles and 117 RBIs. His bat was 36 percent above the league average over that eight-year stretch, per OPS+, and his career totals to date (.269/.361/.511, 404 homers, 400 doubles) are similarly impressive. Teixeira was a major factor in the Yankees’ 2009 World Series victory in his first season in the Bronx, and he was also the subject of one of the largest trades in the past decade, going from Texas to Atlanta in exchange for Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Matt Harrison and Beau Jones. To this point, Teixeira has been worth 52 wins above replacement, per Baseball-Reference, and 45 WAR in the estimation of Fangraphs. He’ll wrap up a brilliant career with just over $213MM in total earnings.
MLBTR wishes Teixeira the best in what will be the final months of an illustrious career and continued happiness and success in his post-playing days.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
He’ll be put on the ballot: is he a HOF player or the often parodied ‘Hall of Really Good’?
I’m guessing it’s the latter. Most of the hall of fame voters are very fixed on milestones and I don’t think that a first baseman with less than 2000 hits will get in, even though the career OPS is very good. Furthermore, he has never won an MVP and made ‘only’ 3 all star teams. The injuries he had the past few years cost him his chance at the hall of fame. But hey, lots of people would be dying to have a career like he’s had.
Not even close to approaching HOF status. I don’t even know if he qualifies for the “Hall of Really Good.”
A great deal of his career WAR is based on a a strong start to his career that quickly morphed into him being a good, but not great, player which has now dovetailed into him being pretty effectively bad. He only actually has managed about four WAR more than Garciaparra, who lapsed off the ballot entirely in his second year on it.
He’s a lock for the “Hall of Could Have Been Great, but Was Derailed By Injuries.”
Eh, he had had a 14 year career, and his best years were 2005 and 2007-2009, years 3 and 5-7 out of 14. He turned into a good, not great player in 2010 and remained that way through 2012 – 32 HR/year, 120 OPS+. He averaged 4.8 bWAR/year with a 131 OPS+ in the first decade of his career, which is pretty great. Do that from 23-32 and stay relatively healthy into your mid-30s and you have yourself a decent Hall case. 2013 was a lost year for Tex, though, and he’s been banged up from 33-36 rather than healthy. Even last year’s 31-HR onslaught was only a 462-PA season. Had Teixeira remained healthy, he could’ve separated himself from the A-Gon/Votto class of recent first basemen.
Nope. No hitter since the expansion era began has been elected with less than 2000 hits.
thurman munson
Munson isn’t n the Hall of Fame
Thurman Munson isn’t in the Hall of Fame. Whether he’s deserving is a question worth considering, but he actually hasn’t been elected.
No chance.
Jon Morosi ✔ @jonmorosi
Mark Teixeira is only 1B *ever* with 400+ HR, 1200+ RBI, 900+ BB, .500+ SLG, 5+ Gold Gloves, per Lee Sinins
You might want to double check on that. To the eye, no, Tex doesn’t seem like a HOF’r, but on paper, he kinda is, plus few talk about the defensive metrics, which have him as perhaps one of the best defensive 1st basemen we’ve seen in this generation. I don’t have the precise numbers available, but read enough over the years to echo this sentiment. I don’t care either way if he makes it in or not, I’m just saying that stating he definitely isn’t a HOF’r could be wrong.
My issue with this is the arbitrariness of 5 GG, especially when Keith Hernandez and Don Mattingly account for 20 of the GGs ever awarded at 1B and Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, Johnny Mize among many other great 1B, played before GG were awarded. The GG aspect is the only thing that makes Teixeira unique there. There’s a good amount of 1B with 900 BB, 1200 RBI, 400 HR, .500+ SLG.
I agree with Metsfan. Who cares. Its not a stop the presses moment. I mean how many firstbaseman in the hall even have five golf gloves? Morosi at times can be kind of annoying
Well, that’d take a lot of time to find out which HOF 1B played golf, and then played enough to buy more than 4 gloves… 😀
Joking aside, I completely agree with you. In the grand scheme of things, a Hall of Really Good player announced his plan to retire at the end of the year. There are more important needs to be done with the HOF than induct Teixeira. It’s really about time that MLB admit to their role in the Steroid Era and induct the stars of the late 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s in. The Steroid Era helped bring MLB back into 2nd place, behind the NFL, and ahead of the NBA.
Tex has been very good with the glove…but GG’s are many times given because of reputation. I remember one year Rafael Palmiero won a GG and he only played about 40 games at first. Mark is another one of those “if only” type of guys. He sure made a lot of money, though,.
Jeff Bagwell:
449 HomeRuns
1529 RBI
1401 BB
540 SLG
He won One Gold Glove, but i’m sure winning the MVP award is more prestigious than winning four more Gold Gloves.
If Bagwell doesn’t get in then neither should Tex.
Gold Glove and Silver Sluggers aren’t nearly as important and the MVP award isn’t really either. GG & SS are only awarded 1 per position (except OF). You could be the 2nd best defensive/offensive player at your position for 20 years and never win these awards. And unlike MVP, there’s no voting to show how close you were to winning one. MVP for hall consideration really should be about how many times you’re a candidate and how serious your candidacy is. Bagwell won the MVP due to having a career year. It was shortened by the strike, but his pace through those games would have had him at 57 HRs 170 RBIs over 162. Bagwell’s numbers, according to BB-Ref’s metrics, are certainly HOF worthy, and you’re right: Teixeira has no business being in a HOF that doesn’t have Bagwell in first.
Career is too short. 1600 hits just isn’t going to cut it.
Personally, I think he’s in the Hall of Really Good. Just has a little over 1800 hits.
Hell definitely fall short, I doubt he gets the 5% first time even
400 HR, 400 2B, premier AL 1B for much of his career – Miguel Cabrera didn’t arrive in the AL until 2008 and I’d argue Teixeira was better the first few years, anyway. Cabrera wasn’t the Cabrera we know today until around 2010. 400 HR, 400 2B, 5 Gold Gloves and some top-10 MVP finishes probably gets him close to 5%, if not 5%.
Yeah, but aren’t those HR numbers also helped of playing in Yankee Stadium for half of his games for the past 8 years?
They definitely are, but he’s also one of just five switch hitters to reach 400 His 127 wRC+/OPS+ also takes into account his favorable home parks. He’s not a HoFer in my opinion, and mostly because a 127 wRC+ in under 8000 PA at 1B really just isn’t terrible impressive, even with good/great defense. Especially without an MVP-level, sustained peak.
Someone needs to lay off of whatever they’re on…
Cabrera wasn’t Cabrera until 2010?? So in the 6 full seasons before that, the 197 HRs, 691 RBIs, 1136 Hits, .315/.388/.548, .936 OPS, 4x All Star, 2x Silver Slugger, and perennial MVP candidate was all just practice?? In the glorious year of 2010, Cabrera dinged 5 more homers and 11 more RBIs than he averaged in the 6 years prior… THAT’s what it takes to arrive?
Teixeira had 2 top-10 MVP finishes, and Cabrera had 3 before “he was the Cabrera we know today”. The reality is that 2004-2009 Cabrera and Teixeira are very comparable hitters, and after that it’s not even close. Teixeira was leaving his prime and Cabrera was really entering it.
He wasn’t a full-time first baseman during his Marlins’ tenure. 2008 was merely good and 2009 was very good, borderline-great. Obviously. he was tremendous as a Marlin, but he played his first game as a first-baseman in 2008 as a Tiger. From 2003 to 2007, he played 248 in LF, 373 at 3B and the rest at RF/DH.
Cabrera hit .327/.405/.564 as a Marlin from 2005 to 2007, a 154 OPS+. Then from 2008 to 2009, as a 1B, he hit .308/.373/.542, a 137 OPS+. That’s a marked decrease considering he moved to an easier defensive position.
Then he exploded in 2010 back to 2007 & before levels. 178 OPS+ in 2010, 179 in 2011, 164 in 2012, 190 in 2013. From 2010 to now, Cabrera’s collectively hit .330/.414/.582, much closer to his 2005-2007 level than 2008-2009.
As a 1B, from 2003 to 2009, Cabrera hit .for a 137 OPS+ with Cabrera defense. As a 1B, from 2003 to 2009, with 40 games in OF/3B in 2003 but no more than 8 any other year, Teixeira hit for a 135 OPS+ (Cabrera’s offensive equal) but over 4600 PA as Tex in the field, an awesome defender. He was pretty clearly the better 1B of the two, during the years they actually played 1B. Miguel Cabrera is a leaps and bounds better player, but he’s only played 1B since 2008, and he’s only played 1B as a generational talent since 2010; his first two seasons in Detroit were significantly worse than anything else he’s done there offensively.
If you want to look at how well they played at 1B, let’s just look at defensive numbers: a great hitter shouldn’t let the fielding position have any bearing on their plate appearances. According to BB-Ref, based on dWAR, Teixeira has been a relatively league average defender at 1B… Cabrera has been below average (netting -8.8 dWAR @ 1B). So, sure Teixeira is the better defender, but you have to take the hitting that comes with it. So, who do you take? Cabrera or Teixeira?
Cabrera hit 33 home runs when he was 21 and hit 33 more when he was 22. Teixeira wasn’t even playing in the majors until he was 23. On top of that Teixeira starts to decline pretty fast in his 30s. Cabrera is an undisputed Hall of Famer, still putting up big numbers in his 30s.. Teixeira needed to have a long career to make the Hall of Fame due to his abrupt decline beginning around age 30.
You take Cabrera’s career and Cabrera’s overall time at 1B any day, but it’s worth mentioning that A) Cabrera’s best two seasons as a Tiger were as a third baseman and B) my original point was that from 2003-2009, Mark Teixeira was the better first baseman during their AL years. 2010 marked the start of Teixeira’s decline and marked the start of Cabrera’s second prolonged peak that turned him into a Hall of Fame lock. From 2003-2009, Teixeira could be *argued* as the best overall first baseman in the American League for the seven-year period. It’s cherry-picking, to be sure, but it’s also the first seven seasons of Tex’s career. Pujols was the clear best 1B in the sport back then, but Teixeira might’ve been the second best 1B for awhile there, unless I’m forgetting an obvious 1B from the mid-2000s.
I think he has a shot at the HOF! He is the only 1B ever to have 400+ hrs, 1200+ rbi, 900+ walks, .500+ slug%, and 5+ gold gloves per mlbnetwork! Each individual Stat may not be impressive but when you put the whole body of work together he has a shot! I am not saying he is a HOF’er but I think he is closer then what a lot of ppl are giving g him credit for.
He barely hits 900 walks, his .511 SLG comes in Texas/New York as home parks for the majority of his career, and 1200 RBI is not that impressive. 7900 PA is just very short.
Look at Jim Edmonds side-by-side against Teixeira.
Edmonds: 7980 PA
Teixeira: 7894 PA
Edmonds: .284 AVG
Teixeira: .269 AVG
Edmonds: .376 OBP
Teixeira: .361 OBP
Edmonds: .527 SLG
Teixeira: .511 SLG
Edmonds: 393 HR
Teixeira: 404 HR
Edmonds: 1199 RBI
Teixeira: 1281 RBI
Edmonds: 1251 R
Teixeira: 1085 R
Edmonds: 437 2B
Teixeira: 400 2B
Edmonds: 855 XBH
Teixeira: 822 XBH
Edmonds: 1949 H
Teixeira: 1836 H
Edmonds: 998 BB
Teixeira: 903 BB
Edmonds: 132 wRC+
Teixeira: 127 wRC+
Edmonds: +64.5 fWAR
Teixeira: +45.2 fWAR
Edmonds: 4-time All Star, Eight 5 fWAR seasons, Seven 5 bWAR seasons
Teixeira: 3-time All Star, Three 5 fWAR seasons, Three 5 bWAR seasons
Edmonds: Six seasons with MVP votes
Teixeira: Seven seasons with MVP votes
Edmonds: Two top-5 MVP finishes, two top-10 finishes total
Teixeira: One top-5 MVP finish, two top-10 finishes total
Edmonds: .90 career MVP shares
Teixeira: .86 career MVP shares
Edmonds: 8-time Gold Glover
Teixeira: 5-time Gold Glover
Edmonds: 1-time Silver Slugger
Teixeira: 3-time Silver Slugger
They’re resumes are almost exactly the same, except Edmonds compiled all of these accolades as a centerfielder, arguably the best in baseball from 2000 to 2005, and Edmonds was top-5 in all of baseball in fWAR from 1995 to 2005 despite missing a year, and yet Edmonds, a top-15 CF ever, was bounced from the BBWAA ballot this past January with just 2.5% of the vote. That does *not* bode well for Teixeira’s chances of getting 5% in 2022. If they don’t get in by then, Schilling, Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Mussina, Kent, Sheffield, Wagner, Hoffman will still be on the ballot, David Ortiz will be debuting that year, and it’s possible Alex Rodriguez and Ichiro could be joining them that year too, though I think both will at least play next season.
Due to the imbalance of WAR for CF vs 1B, comparing WAR between Edmonds and Teixeira is just unfair. The biggest reason I am against WAR as a major deciding stat in the first place is because you get an advantage based on where you play before you even calculate the rest of the stats. It could also be argued that Edmonds was a compiler. Due to his perceived great defense (which stopped being great long before he quit), he lasted a lot longer in the league than Teixeira.
That being said, if two superior first basemen like Jeff Bagwell and Fred McGriff are having trouble getting into the HOF, there is no way Teixeira gets in.
A+
Only thing you didn’t account for is that Yankees mystique.
If you think Edmonds got bounced unjustly take just a moment to look up Kenny Lofton.
Tex just had way too short a career. Again, no post-expansion player with less than 2000 hits has ever made the Hall. Edmonds came up short and Tex will come up short unless he picks up 300+ hits in the next six weeks. Edmonds was a great player but his career was just too short. 1900 hits isn’t going to make it.
Lofton is the 9th-best center-fielder according to JAWS- he has a much better case than Edmonds.
N really he’s only 36 figure if he put up 25 n 80 the next four years then he’d be at like 500 n 1500 then he would be but definitly no as of now
Does Buster Olney cover any other teams, or is it just strictly Yankees? Either way, I find it annoying to listen to him talk about the Yankees. He should be a beat reporter for them, and stop acting like he knows anything about other teams.
Amen
He was a beat reporter for the Yankees. I imagine he still has some ties to the front office that’s been largely unchanged.
Thank you ‘friggz’…….thought most fans knew that….(I guess ‘not’)
Perhaps he should go back to his previous role, then. He clearly exhibits a bias and is spending most of his time repeating whatever a Yankees GM/Scout/Front office personnel had an opinion on.
No different than Peter Gammons and the Red Sox.
He covered the Yankees for the NY Times prior to his job with ESPN. Check out “The Last Night of The Yankee Dynasty,” great read.
Olney cut his teeth as a Yankee beat reporter. You just don’t forget where you started from.
Buster actually does cover the whole league. He has contacts in New York. Plus, they’re one of the most talked about teams. So why wouldn’t ESPN want their top baseball reporter to break stories about the yanks first?
“cubsfan2489” … gets it.
If there is news about them, why wouldn’t he cover them? What other story right now should he be reporting on?
I am not suggesting he should not be covering the Yankees, or any other news for that matter. I just notice that the majority of the time he discusses anything, it is Yankees-related. I used to listen to the BBTN podcast and it may as well have been called Yankees Tonight. He is wrong quite often, and does not seem all that credible when discussing anything in-depth that does not involve the Yankees.
ESPN is one of the most bias sports media outlets. Since I only follow baseball, I only watch MLB network. I take everything ESPN says with a grain of salt…
Most *biased*, you mean. Bias is a noun, not an adjective. “Biased” is the adjective used to describe someone or something that has bias.
Astute observation from the grammar police.
Last couple years he’s been hurt more then he played.
He is/was one heck of a player.
New York Yankee money as well as injury changed him. Just my opinion.
It’s the injuries, flat out, that did him in. The argument that his big payday did him in is ludicrous. He outproduced his contract in his first three seasons and didn’t tail off until the injury bug started to do him in in 2012 (And it did him in fast, compling only about 5.5 net WAR over the last five years of his deal, which was barely more than his first season in NY).
He achieved his career goal in 2009, becoming a New York Yankee. Anything after that was basically icing on the cake.
ESPN has been a blathering joke for years. Get the most clicks, nothing more.
I agree. I refuse to watch ESPN anymore. Please stay out of politics and social issues, and stick to sports.
A career .268 hitter?
Nice player.
Million miles from HOF
Are we really still living in the world where batting AVG is used as an important marker? Why use batting average – which ignores walks and quality of the hit – when you can use other stats? Yeah, Teixeira only has 1836 hits in his career because of the ‘low’ .268 AVG, but he also has 404 HR, 400 2B, 822 total extra base hits, 903 walks and has been hit by pitches 111 times in his career. A .361 OBP and .511 SLG, and .872 OPS are all quite impressive. That said, with just about 8000 PA by the end of this season/his career, he’s on the short end and hasn’t been impressive *enough* in either career or peak to make the Hall with that low a PA total. I have Tex behind unenshrined 1B like Fred McGriff, Will Clark, Jason Giambi, Todd Helton and others, guys who likely will never make it, though I guess Helton has a small chance.
Because if he had maintained his .290 pre-NYY avg, he might have gotten to 2000 hits, but a 400HR, 400 2B, hitter just doesn’t cut the BBWAA mustard.
BBWAA isn’t the only way to get into the Hall, first off. Yeah, if he’d been better, he’d have had a better chance at the Hall, but the guy I replied to seemed to just cite his career .269 AVG and call it a day, which I’d’ve assumed we’ve moved past. I understand the BBWAA has never elected someone with under 2000 hits in the expansion era, but that doesn’t mean sub-2000 H players haven’t been deserving. On stats alone, Mark McGwire is clearly deserving. Bobby Grich, Richie Allen, Andruw Jones, Jim Edmonds all have strong cases to varying degrees, and some catches (Munson, Mauer) fall short of 2k hits and have cases. I can see someone making it soon with less than 2000 hits; I suspect it’s going to be Andruw, with his 434 HR, dominant 20s and 10 GG carrying the way.
True, but even considering his other stats, .269 is pretty low for what we think of as a HOFer. Ray Schalk hit .253 but was the best defensive catcher in baseball in his era, and stole 177 bases, and he was selected by the Veteran’s Committee.
Perhaps Harmon Killebrew is a better comparison to look at, Ray Schalk is just the lowest AVG position player… Killebrew hit .256, but eclipsed the 2000 hit mark, and finished with 573 HRs. I think the point is, you don’t have to hit .280+, but if your power numbers are what’s leading the way for your HOF bid, you need to finish pretty darn high in those categories. The numbers just aren’t there (according to BB-Ref): Gray Ink, Black Ink, HOF Monitor, JAWS.
Yeah, I agree, but I’d rather just look at his overall offense using OPS, wOBA, OPS+ & wRC+. Saying his had 1836 H in 7000 AB or whatever and hit .269 is fine, but of those 1836, many were of the extra bases variety, and there were 903 walks and over 100 HBPs added onto that. AVG doesn’t consider quality of hit or other ways of reaching base. OBP isn’t perfect, either – it still treats singles, doubles and HR equally, and SLG still ignores walks and treats a double as exactly twice as valuable as a single, a HR as twice a double, etc. but those at least mostly look at everything. Even looking past AVG, his 127 OPS+/127 wRC+ doesn’t do it for someone with under 8000 PA and no other real pluses.
Extra base variety… He ranks 181st in Doubles, and 55th in HRs, combined he ranks 102nd in Extra Base Hits. That total isn’t staggering when considering the Hall of Fame.
And we can argue all we want about our opinion of our non-existent HOF vote, but really, anyone who didn’t vote for Ken Griffey, Jr. should have their voting privilege stripped. Either, given the HOF ballot roster, you believe Ken Griffey, Jr. is a HOFer or he’s not, and if you think he’s not, you have no business voting. The notion that no one should get in unanimously is bogus.
What is the point of having a press conference when the announcement has already been made? This has always been a pet peeve of mine? Why not wait until the conference to drop the news?
So the press can ask questions?
As to why not wait, when a 36 year old player about to hit FA while having an awful season announces a press conference, you pretty much know exactly what he’s announcing, no point keeping it a secret.
The announcement hasn’t been made; the purpose of the press conference has been rumored/leaked. There’s a difference. Teixeira hasn’t actually said anything yet, has he? That’s the point of the press conference.
ARod needs to follow that press conference with one of his own–from the parking lot–and announce the same thing.
Cheers to that robf13
No way does A-Rod retire with the Yankees on the hook for $21MM for next year and his home run milestone bonuses (He’s just four shy of 700 HR and the Yankees owe him money for various milestones he reaches between 660 and 763.
The only way I could see him retiring is if the Yankees offered him a payout to do so, but I doubt they are willing to do that and concede owing him that HR milestone money, something I believe they’ve tried to contest before because of the PED busts.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but if they DFA him, he’s free to sign with any team with the Yankees picking up the tab. Thing is, I’m not sure anyone is going to want an aging DH taking up a roster spot. It might be a chance the Yankees are willing to take.
Right, no team would claim him. He’d elect free agency, and be free to sign with whatever team he wanted, and the Yankees would still be footing the bill.
I’m pretty sure the Yankees worked out a deal to have his ‘Milestone’ bonus(es) turn into charity money. I could be wrong but $21mm is all he get’s (he’s going to milk it).
Good night sweet prince.
He’s an example of giving long-term contracts turned out to be bad. I hope the Yankees do not spend the grotesque amount of $400 million as some media outlets have reported as Bryce Harper contract once is he’s FA. Once players go over 6,7,8 years do not perform as they should be.. Pressure on being paid big bucks get to them. Plus media will crucify anybody with all these statistics once they perform poorly.. So players better take lesser contracts .but who can blame them? $90 million for 5 era starting pitcher…
The Yankees are the one team that can afford to do it… with as much money as they have coming off the books, it’d be hard to imagine them not going after someone like Harper. Of course, as loaded as their farm system is now, they could afford to just sit back and rake in profits like never before.
Good for him. Go out on his own terms. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, it’s quite honorable instead of playing until you’re broken down to the point, where people question you left and right. Which ties into the A-Rod discussion. I was going to write something on here last night and I’m completely dumbfounded, that not even a single baseball pundit, writer, etc, has considered the reasons why the Yanks have not and will not release A-Rod. 1. He is 4 homers away from 700, which if possible, could give them a short-term bounce in attendance and press for the remainder of 2016. Of course they need to play him, but as for taking up a spot, it’s just for a couple more weeks and then it becomes moot once rosters expand. You’re already paying the guy, so mind as well role the dice at this point. 2. The more important (and likely point, which I’m shocked no one talks about), is that I fully expect A-Rod to also announce his retirement this offseason, therefore forfeiting the remaining $21mm in salary or likely working some type of buy out with the Yanks or deferred payment of a lesser amount. Why would A-Rod do this? Glad you asked. After a tumultuous career with many highs and several lows, I see no better ending for him, to retire admirably in the offseason on his terms. After all of this, I wouldn’t want to be “just released”. No one is picking A-Rod up if he is released and he knows it. So he can take forced retirement or do it on his own. I actually think he make this choice come October 1, and I could see him back with the Yanks in some managerial or coaching capacity.
A-Rod does not strike me as a manager/coach type of person.
same was said of Barry Bonds
I agree that ARod will probably retire after the season, but only if the Yankees buy him out or offer him a job with the organization that makes up for the $20+M owed to him. On the flip side, ARod is a pretty vain man. He may force the Yankees to release him and then hook up with another team.
I find it sad that trade rumors considers Buster Olney a legitimate source, he seems to be as wrong as he is right.
Hell of a player and I wish the Sox coulda got him at the time – but in hind-sight maybe it’s better we didn’t (Adrian Gonzalez not withstanding).
That being said, I won’t be able to forget the games played when the Sox tried to sign him. It felt like being the guy who kissed a girls ass and did anything he could to prove his love only to see her bang the bad boy.
He made his intentions known fairly early on. He wanted to be a Yankee, he got there as soon as he could; not sure he would have ever been willing to sign with the Red Sox. It was Teixeira’s performance that made Adrian Gonzalez expendable. In hindsight, perhaps the Rangers should have traded Hank Blalock and moved Adrian to 3B for a year and a half…
I have to say as a Red Sox fan that I really respected Teixeira, even during his years with the Yankees. He was a classy guy, and a hard working ball player. He never had issues with teammates, management, or off the field problems. I would have gladly rooted for Teixeira if the Sox had signed him, which they attempted to. Great career. Perhaps not HOF worthy, but he did things the right way.
I always found it astonishing that Texeira suddenly went from being a .280-.300 hitter to struggling to bat .250. It wasn’t just the injuries. His approach to hitting changed. It’s like he suddenly felt he needed to be a 50 HR guy in New York. Still, I liked the guy as a player and felt bad that injury after injury took its toll on him.
Every year from 2004 to 2009 he also had a .370+ OBP and .500+ SLG, and from 2010-2016 he has topped out with a .365 OBP and has hit .500 SLG once (.548 last year). An oft-forgotten thing is also that pitching became much better as he began declining, and shifts began killing his ground-ball BABIP. He’s only twice pulled the ball less than half the time, but shifts weren’t as prevalent back in his Rangers/Angels/Braves days. He’s also pulled the ball slightly more since 2010, too. Just a lot of factors contributed to the decreased AVG.
Can someone please explain to me why a guy getting shifted on can’t learn to bunt down the third base line until they stop shifting him? I sware he would have stayed at that batting average if he’d just bunted 3 maybe 4 times a season.
It’s fine in practice, but I think an MLB player’s swing is more of an art than you think it is. It’s not that easy to bunt a 90+ MPH fastball fair in the direction you want it to go. It’s also easier to bunt a pitch on the outer half of the plate towards the opposite field, but if you’re shifting, it’s probably prudent of the pitcher to not pitch to spots they can dump it to the opposite field. Yeah, dropping a bunt is always a good idea when you’re a lefty being shifted, but it’s harder to actually do so with any sort of regulartiy. It’d need to be a real threat to take away being shifted. You also need to get it past the pitcher but not too far down the third base line that it becomes a light grounder to the 3B. I wish more players would drop down bunts to keep the defense honest, but there is a reason these players are being shifted after all; their swings are made to pull.
Metsfan93, I agree with you on the difficulty at the major league level especially when the pitcher is busting you inside, but the skill can be practiced and he’d only have to be successful once or twice before other teams stop, or at least alter the shift.
Late-in-career injuries.
The “shift”.
Refusing to try and “beat the shift”.
He
He’s not Hall of Fame-worthy, and there’s nothing wrong with that. He’s a great player, has had a great career, and could’ve been Hall-worthy had last season’s success (31 HR, 53 XBH in 462 PA, 146 OPS+) carried into this season and a few more, but that didn’t happen. I’d say Teixeira is a premier first baseman of our era, but there’s just a few too many as good/better and many better in the last thirty years total. Among 1B who have played primarily since 1990, I have Teixeira outside the top-10, behind non-HOFers like Olerud, Giambi, Helton and Berkman (and also Mark McGwire & Rafael Palmeiro, who have missed out for different reasons). He’s closer to Carlos Delgado, who he’s a worse hitter than but better fielder than, than he is a HoF guy. There’s no shame in having a 7900-PA, 127 wRC+ career with 400+ HR and 1800+ H. It’s just not good enough, especially in a world where Fred McGriff is struggling to even get to 25% of the vote and is pretty clearly superior. Entering the year with 46 fWAR coming off a 31-HR season, I think Tex needed to keep last year up for 4 more years to have a chance. That hasn’t happened.
See ya later, Bojack Teixeria
think of how the braves team might have been if they resigned texiera instead of that crappy second trade.
who cares, this guy is so annoying. He is the frat boy we all hated in college. Bye bye!
Hall of really good, not of HOF. Not even as borderline as Beltran.
Beltran’s not borderline. Beltran’s a top-10 CF ever, one of, if not the, most efficient basestealers ever, is currently 8th all-time in CF JAWS, is a Rookie of the Year, Gold Glover, Silver Slugger, 9-time All Star, top-5 MVP vote-finisher, is top-100 in bWAR all-time, top-70 in bWAR for position players, is top-75 in runs scored, top-100 in hits, top-50 in total bases, top-50 in doubles, 51st in HR, 157th in steals, 55th in RBI, just outside top-100 in walks, 4th all-time in SB%:
415 HR, 2566 H, 525 2B, 78 3B, .281/.354/.493 career line, 70.2 bWAR, 68~ fWAR, 1500 R, 1509 RBI, ROY, 9-time All Star, 1018 XBH, 4492 TB, 3-time Gold Glover, 2-time Silver Slugger and in October he’s a .332/.441/.674 hitter with 30 XBH, 16 HR, 40 RBI, 45 R, 35 BB in about one third of a full season’s playing time (52 games). That’s a 90 XBH, 48 HR, 120 RBI, 135 R, 105 BB type of hitter in the playoffs.
what? no grand “look at me i’m retiring give me a gift tour”?
thank you tex… but when I said “i wish he would get out of the AL East” I didn’t mean you had to leave baseball. 😉
no where near as deserving as Ortiz, Jeter, Rivera…
I bet he decides to give it a go in spring training he’s just havin a rough year
Great career for Teixeira, something to be very proud of, but there shouldn’t even be a question: he is not a HOF-er. I give credit to Buster Olney, who I heard on the radio a little while ago give what to me is a definitive statement on Teixeira’s case for the HOF: if Fred McGriff isn’t in the Hall of Fame yet, there is absolutely no way Teixeira should even be mentioned.
Goodnight sweet prince.
Great player but not HOF worthy.
Good bye!!! Broadcast booth here he comes!!! He’s not HOF worthy… First Steve Garvey and then many before Marky
And he wants everyone to know it so the fanfare can commence. Personally, I like the Tim Duncan approach much better. He’s not a Hall of Famer period, but had a very nice 5-6 year run of optimal performance.
One of the best hitters of his generation. Of all time? No… But still a great player.
Zero chance this roider gets in….
He was a very good ball player with above average skills but in my opinion not HOF caliber. Very classy team oriented. What I find amazing is he is walking away with a year remaining on his huge contact. ARod could learn from him and should do the same.
Hall is fame is for the ultimate all time players of each era and each position. If a player has to be debated based on his talent, not likability, then he does not belong. Tex has been a solid hold at first but offensively not HOF level. Let’s try to keep the hall a special place and not like a team retiring jerseys for nice players.