Last week, Mark Teixeira had some interesting comments regarding the current MLB negotiations.
“People all over the world are taking pay cuts and losing jobs. I would rather make pennies on the dollar and give hope to people and play baseball than not make anything and lose an entire year of their career,” Teixeira remarked.
First and foremost, let me say I am a huge Tex fan. He was a great Yankee and was instrumental in bringing us our 27th World Championship in 2009. Switch hitters with power don’t grow on trees. He is also the best defensive first basemen I’ve ever seen play.
Tex was a great player, but he was also the cookie-cutter Boras client. He hit free agency and decided that he was going to sign with the team that offered the most money. Prior to hitting free agency, Tex had played in Atlanta and Anaheim. Both of those teams showed interest in signing him. Additionally, Teixeira drew interest from his hometown Baltimore Orioles, another small-market team.
Let’s be honest- his past relationships and hometown bond meant very little. Tex was on the verge of signing with Boston, who had the highest offer on the table. It wasn’t until the New York Yankees swooped in at the last minute and topped the Red Sox offer that he decided he wanted to be a Yankee. He agreed to an eight-year, $180 million dollar deal just before Christmas.
I don’t blame him at all. The Yankees were offering the most money, they had the best roster, and were moving into a sparkling new palace of a ballpark. He got the best deal and also got his ring. I would’ve done the exact same thing.
The problem with his statement is that Teixeira personally would have never agreed to play for pennies on the dollar, at any point. He was going to sign with the team that offered him the most money. Period. It could’ve been the Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers, or a team on Mars. But he was going to the highest bidder.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get the most compensation for your work. It’s fine to chase every last dollar. But it’s wrong to publicly campaign for your peers to do something that you never would’ve done.
