My uncle from Boston visited tonight, pulled out his laptop and went straight to his bookmarked Boston Globe sports page.
“Gammons reports Redsox and Teixiera are close to a deal!” He boasted.
It was true. Epstein had flown out to Texas to meet Teixiera at his home in hopes of finalizing a deal that would lock up the slugging first basemen for 8 years for a total of $184 million. It seemed all but eminent, the Yankees were stewing, Sox fans were enjoying an early christmas, and Mike Lowell already had his foot out the door.
However in the blink of a Bill Buckner eye, those hopes vanished faster than the Wilpons' fortune. Right as most Sox fans were tucking their little Pedroia's and Papelbons into bed, a
new headline came across the ticker. “Henry: 'We're not going to be a factor' for Teixeira.”
Shocking news to say the least, it had seemed to be all but a done deal. The Sox were going to put Teixeira at first, move Youkalis to third, and ship Lowell elsewhere. It would have bolstered their line up for the next half decade, and more than replace the hole Manny left. Ellsbury, Pedroia, Texierra, Ortiz, Youkalis, Bay and Drew; a true Hank Steinbrenner nightmare.
According to John Henry, the Redsox owner, another club had swooped in with a larger offer the team wasn't willing to match, promising Teixiera more money and for more years. The Redsox have been very firm in the past with the amount of years they have been willing to tack onto a contract, it's one of the main reasons they didn't sign another Boras client, Johnny Damon.
This means one of two things. Either super-agent Scott Boras is bluffing, and the Redsox are trying to call that bluff, or another team truly did sweep in with a bigger offer. With the Dodgers finalizing a deal with Raphael Furcal this afternoon, it would lead me to believe that the only other team in the hunt with the ability, and the brashness to offer a bigger deal would be our own Washington Nationals.
We reported earlier that there were rumors of the Nationals offering as much as 10 years for $200 million. Until now those reports had not been confirmed but it seems that with the Redsox announcing that they were outbid, this may be the very deal we will see signed in the next few days. This story continues to echo the Alex Rodriguez signing with the Texas Rangers several years ago.
Let's just hope again that if the Nationals sign the Tex-Mess, it will pay off for us, not just him.
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