Every so often, there are transactions in baseball that send ripples throughout the sport, and beyond. Connie Mack's sale of the Philadelphia Athletics' stars early in the 20th century. The sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The trade of Jackie Robinson from the Dodgers to the Giants, which led to Robinson's retirement. The three sentinel deals that signaled change within the sport -- the proposed trade between the Phillies and Cardinals that caused Curt Flood to challenge baseball's reserve clause, and the arbitration decisions that made Andy Messersmith and Catfish Hunter free agents.
The Yankees' signing of
Mark Teixeira doesn't possess that kind of impact, but the fallout has a lot of layers to it, with a lot of folks affected now, and a lot of folks who will be affected going forward. There are a lot of winners and losers in this.
A winner: Teixeira. There will be a lot of debate about what his true motivation is, whether he is a difference-making player, whether he is a character guy, whether his acquisition actually makes the Yankees front-runners to win the American League East.
Alex Rodriguez can hand over his manual regarding what it means to get a contract that large.
| Olney's news and notes |
• D-backs, Snyder close to extension
• Astros getting character guy in Boone
• Buzzword for Cards is now "patient"
• Markakis says no to playing in WBC
• Fields, Owens figure in ChiSox's plans
Around the majors with Buster Olney 
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Set all that aside, for a moment, and remember the bottom line -- Teixeira's a great player. He gets on base 40 percent of the time, hits for power and is arguably the best defensive first baseman in the game. He worked diligently to make himself great -- no one has ever questioned his desire to prepare or play -- and he put himself in position to make a choice between enormous offers, and he selected the Yankees. He got what he wanted.
Some losers in all this: The Red Sox, who had targeted Teixeira as the focal point of their offseason -- and whose executives flew to Texas last Thursday to meet with the slugger thinking they had a chance to close the deal with him.
But that meeting might have turned out to be a tipping point, because after Boston executives perceived that the finish line moved back on them, owner
John Henry issued a statement saying the Red Sox would not be a factor. Did this make Teixeira mad? Did it turn the negotiation into a competition for him, and make him more inclined to strike a deal with the Yankees? In time, Teixeira will speak about those matters.
No matter what the back story is, the Red Sox have missed out on a player who is a prototype of what the organization values, someone who could have solidified the middle of the Boston lineup at a time when they don't know what
Mike Lowell or
David Ortiz will contribute, moving forward. Worse than that, they now have to cope with that power-hitting, switch-hitting slugger repeatedly when they play the Yankees.
The Red Sox increased their offer to $170 million
in the last hours of the negotiations, writes Sean McAdam. This was
a stunning turn of events for Boston, writes Adam Kilgore.
The Red Sox
needed Teixeira, writes Nick Cafardo.
Winners: The Yankees. Whether you like their methods or not, it is inarguable that they have improved their team markedly, adding the best pitcher on the market in
CC Sabathia and adding the best offensive player in Teixeira. They have made their brand more marketable, and they have provided a dollop of midwinter excitement to their fans who are considering shelling out hundreds of dollars for tickets in the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees' signing of Teixeira
sends a loud message from the Steinbrenners, writes Bob Ryan.
The signing is
right on the Mark, writes Kevin Kernan.
Losers: The Yankees, who already are getting hammered by some within the industry for doling out yet another huge contract. The Yankees will field the four highest-paid players in baseball history, from A-Rod (the base salary of his contract is $275 million),
Derek Jeter ($189 million), Teixeira ($180 million) and Sabathia ($161 million). "Are the Yankees aware that the country is going through a recession?" snapped a high-ranking executive. "Are they crazy? They're going to ruin the sport."
Brewers owner
Mark Attanasio wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg News, "At the rate the Yankees are going, I'm not sure anyone can compete with them. Frankly, the sport might need a salary cap."
Yankees officials privately defend themselves by noting that even with the signing of Teixeira, their payroll is going to fall from last year, to below $200 million, because they had about $88.5 million in expiring contracts. They're better, younger, cheaper and they will pick in every round but one in the draft next season.
And they do have defenders even among the small-market teams. "They just got a luxury-tax bill of $26.9 million, didn't they?" another AL official asked rhetorically. "They always pay, don't they? The other teams cash their checks, don't they?"
"The Yankees are great for baseball, just like the Red Sox and the Cubs are great for baseball, because they generate interest and they generate money for all of us. Today, somebody is going to pick up a paper overseas and there will be something in there on the Yankees' signing of Teixeira. Do you think that would happen if there was some trade between small-market teams? People pay attention to the Yankees, and that's good for our sport."
The Yankees
represent the very worst of America, writes Phil Sheridan.
The Yankees
defied a recession in signing Teixeira et al, writes Michael Schmidt. This was Moneyball,
Steinbrenner style, writes Harvey Araton. The Yankees
don't have any kind of budget, writes Mike Lupica.
The Yankees' spending at a time of recession is
raising eyebrows, writes Neil Best. Sometimes the Yankees seem to inhabit
an alternate reality, writes Wallace Matthews.
The Yankees
can't buy guarantees, writes Tim Kawakami.
Losers: The Orioles, who were never seriously engaged by Camp Teixeira after their initial seven-year, $140 million offer, presumably because the team is staring at least a couple of lean years. The O's miss out on a homegrown star again, feeding the decade-long angst of many of their fans. The bottom line, Peter Schmuck writes, is that Teixeira
just wasn't intent on playing in Baltimore.
Orioles fans
are upset, writes Childs Walker.
Losers: The Brewers. Part of their rationale in making the blockbuster trade for Sabathia was that, at season's end, they could recoup the value of the lefty, in part, by receiving a first-round draft pick from the team that signed him. Well, because Teixeira ranks higher than Sabathia in the Elias rankings, it is the Angels -- and not the Brewers -- who get the Yankees' first round pick. The Brewers, rather, will get the Yankees' second round pick, an enormous disappointment for Milwaukee.
Doug Melvin, the Brewers' general manager, believes the draft compensation system needs to be revamped, as he explained in an e-mail this morning:
"The Angels had a better record than us and the Blue Jays, and the Brewers and the Blue Jays got shoved down the food chain. The Elias rankings have never been changed, and there are so many smart statistical gurus --
Bill James, etc. -- that could create a fair model for both players and teams, who should be compensated fairly according to the value of each player to that team. Last year,
Geoff Jenkins, who had a nice career with us and was arguably one of our better players, was not even ranked last year, and
Tony Graffanino, a part-time player, was ranked. We have dropped 46 slots in the 2009 draft, and we will be dropping even more because there are so many compensation picks. The second round will be almost the third round, in the way that it will develop."
"The Yankees will lose some draft picks, but they can draft unsignable players in fourth and fifth rounds, and pay over-slot, as they did with
Andrew Brackman (the Yankees' No. 1 pick in 2007).
"The Draft Elias rankings and compensation needs to be changed. I do not want to sound like I'm whining, but teams who have to build with draft picks get frustrated. I had interest in
Juan Cruz, and because I thought we had extra first-round picks for CC and for
Ben Sheets, I had considered a Type A signing. Now I have to reconsider."
"We will keep having fun with scouting and player development, and finding our role players.
Brian [
Cashman] has to do what his owners and market asks him to do."
Winners: The Orioles and the Nationals. Hey, it never hurts to try, but really, Teixeira was not a good fit within the payroll structure of either team at this moment. In two or three years, maybe a player like Teixeira might make sense. But Teixeira would have swallowed up, by himself, about 30 percent of the Nationals' payroll and about 20-25 percent of the Baltimore payroll. Both teams need to take a few more strides in the development of their pitching -- as the Rays have -- before the timing of a Teixeira-like pursuit would be right.
The Nationals
offered between $178 million and $184 million, writes Chico Harlan, but money wasn't the deciding factor. This shows the Nationals will bid high enough
to compete for the top players, writes Thomas Boswell. Teixeira
wasn't ready to commit to the Nationals, writes Ben Goessling.
• Losers:
Manny Ramirez and
Jason Varitek.
The Yankees were seen as a potential bailout for Ramirez, if he didn't get what he requires -- as in at least four years and $100 million -- from the Angels or the Dodgers. Well, now the Yankees do not intend to pursue Ramirez, according to sources, and the Angels have
openly stated they are out, and the Dodgers can just sit back and wait for Ramirez to come to them -- and it would not be out of the realm of possibility that the Dodgers might adjust any forthcoming offer
downward, because they see, like everybody else does, that there is very little multi-year market for a guy with a history of not honoring his contract.
Ramirez has nowhere else to go, but the question about whether the Dodgers
will take him back lingers, writes T.J. Simers. His best shot to get decent money will come if Scott Boras can somehow convince the Nationals that it would behoove them to invest in the 36-year-old slugger as the ornament for their franchise.
And Varitek's days in Boston might now reach an end. His offense suffered as his bat speed lagged, and the Red Sox were on the fence about whether to offer him arbitration. He declined that offer, much to the surprise of the team, and given how the Teixeira negotiations played out, the odds of Boston reaching a deal with another Boras client might be diminished in the immediate future.
Loser:
Andy Pettitte. As Peter Abraham writes in his blog, the Yankees
might withdraw their offer to Pettitte, as they make the financial adjustments they see as necessary to account for the Teixeira signing. If the Yankees cut ties with the left-hander, they will pick their fifth starter from the group of young starting pitchers who appeared in the majors last year:
Ian Kennedy,
Phil Hughes, etc.
• Losers: The Blue Jays. They're stuck in the dreaded no-man's land: The Jays are not moving forward and they're not rebuilding, with their payroll locked in place. Their superstar pitcher,
Roy Halladay, is at his peak, and he's surrounded by a lot of talented young players who will need more time to develop. And the Jays sadly inhabit a division loaded with three monsters -- the Yankees, with their staggering payroll and financial might; the Red Sox, another team with huge resources and a great farm system; and the Rays, who might have more pure talent than anybody in the game in their organization.
It might behoove the Jays to take a step back and consider dealing Halladay, because contending is going to be very difficult for them in the immediate future.
Oh, and by the way: The Jays had thought that they might get a first-round pick from the loss of
A.J. Burnett. Because the Yankees signed Teixeira and Sabathia, the Jays will now get the Yankees'
third-round pick, instead.
• Losers: The Mets. Because it's New York, the team that doesn't make the big deal is set up for criticism. The Yankees didn't get
Johan Santana earlier this year and got pounded for it, and now the Mets will catch flak in the aftermath of the deals for Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira.
It's time for the Mets
to get in the game, writes Mike Vaccaro.
• Losers: The Angels. They were outbid, and they have moved on --
sticking to their stubborn approach, writes Mark Whicker. Keep in mind that there is really nothing pushing the Angels in the AL West to paint outside their philosophical lines, the way teams in the AL East are pushed.
Winners: Some fans of great baseball theatre. The AL East figures to be an incredibly tense race in 2009. The Rays won the division essentially because their rotation was remarkably consistent and injury-free for five months, and now they might have upgraded that group, with the expected ascension of
David Price.
Josh Beckett will probably be more physically sound as 2009 opens, and he and
Jon Lester and
Daisuke Matsuzaka can be dominant. Assuming that
Andy Pettitte returns to the Yankees' rotation, the Yanks' starting five could be better than any group since the dynasty years.
Loser: Labor peace. With the global economic crisis impacting millions in this country, the political climate already is forming for the owners to engage the players in a major challenge of baseball's financial system. If the recession deepens, the players will be under enormous public pressure to make a labor deal when the current agreement expires in 2011. Think about how it will look if a union, with its members averaging $3 million in salary, were to go on strike.
The Yankees' spending will undoubtedly lead to a greater push within management for some stronger form of a salary cap (see the quote above, by Attanasio). If they do that … well, the next talks between MLB and the Players Association could get really, really ugly.
Those damn Yankees, says Torii Hunter,
in summation.
Around the majors with Buster Olney
Buster Olney
