For those who thought Tex wanted to be a Yankee...

[BehindTimes]

He also didn't want to play for the Orioles, apparently...as Boras called the Yankees, not the Orioles.

This is what bothers me:

He didn't want to go to Boston and only signed with the Yankees because they would offer him the cash he was looking for and so he wouldn't have to sign with Boston.

First off, he wouldn't have had to live in Boston.

Second, he didn't have to sign with Boston. No one was holding a gun up to his head stating that he had to sign with the highest paying team. Obviously, this wasn't the case, as he didn't sign with the Nationals, who supposidly offered the highest amount of money.

I can't speak for anyone else here, but if I'm looking for a new job, and I get 3 offers:

A) My Dream job for a ludicrous amount of money

B) My Hated job for an insanely ludicrous amount of money

C) A job that I have ambivalent feelings for but is offering even more money than the other two

It's a no brainer, I choose my dream job. At what point is being financially sound enough? I live 40 miles away from NYC in one of the most expensive areas in the country, and I can state for a fact that the cost of living is significantly cheaper in Baltimore. I realize I don't have $140 million, but I can't see cost of living decreasing that drastically as money goes up. $140 million or 180 million, he and his children (and his children's children) are practically set for life. (According to the cost of living calculator, the Orioles offer of $140 million would require $250 million in NYC).

And according to the radio stations around here, within 2 hours of receiving the offer from the Yankees, he accepted it. He just wanted to be a Yankee all along, and, if anything, was upset at their initial offer, and waited for them to come up with a better offer. The Orioles never really had a chance.

[Mackus]

Its ignorant at best to call the Orioles opening offer a "lowball". It was for 1 year less and $2.5M per year less than he ultimately signed for. So there is no credence to any speculation that the Orioles pissed him off with an initial offer.

I haven't been around the hear all the stuff that came out after the signing, but I am absolutely livid that the Orioles didn't match/beat the Yankees offer unless one or both of the following is true:

1) They did match/beat the offer but Tex took less to go elsewhere

2) In order to sign here, Tex demanded an opt out after the 3rd year and no later.

If neither of those first two are true, then I am completely furious with the way the Orioles handled things. I don't believe for a second that Tex would not have come here for the highest offer. Missing out on Tex, assuming neither of the two previously mentioned caveat's completely balances out any good MacPhail has done in his time here, and brings him down to a completely average to below average grade for his time here so far, IMO. the Bedard and Tejada trades were still great, but at this point I would much rather have had another GM getting slightly less for Tejada and Bedard and sign Tex than have what MacPhail got for those guys and completely screwing up the Tex race.

I also place the entirety of the blame for not getting Tex on MacPhail and not Angelos. I don't doubt for a second that Angelos would have opened up the bank to get Tex. I think MacPhail convinced him spending over $20M on Tex wasn't a good move, which I completely disagree with. I would have been fine with any combination of years and salary that stayed under the $200-208M total money range.

[Stotle]

As I said I think the Orioles eliminated themselves by having such a low first offer. Every team offered more $ than they did for an opening bid...

He wasn't dying to play for the Orioles at any cost obviously but that doesn't mean he didn't want to play for the Orioles.

I think the issue is you don't understand how these negotiations work. It isn't an auction. You don't submit bids for Teix and wait to hear if it is accepted. If it worked that way, players wouldn't need agents -- at all. We have Schmuck saying (according to someone's post) that Boras did not want to talk Teix when AM gave him a ring...multiple times. AM can't force an offer upon Teix. I mean he can, but it doesn't accomplish anything.

You need to have two parties willing to discuss. When BAL dropped it's first offer, it was right around the other offers on the table (if I recall, the most per year but the only offer that was 7 rather than 8?). From all accounts, AM checked in periodically and Boras did not want to discuss Teix. If your argument is that Teix was upset at BAL's lowball offer (which was the highest per year and one year shy of the other offers), I guess I simply disagree. Unlike fans, players/agents tend to try and keep emotions out of these sorts of things whenever possible.

[carolinaoriole]

This is what bothers me:

First off, he wouldn't have had to live in Boston.

Second, he didn't have to sign with Boston. No one was holding a gun up to his head stating that he had to sign with the highest paying team. Obviously, this wasn't the case, as he didn't sign with the Nationals, who supposidly offered the highest amount of money.

I can't speak for anyone else here, but if I'm looking for a new job, and I get 3 offers:

A) My Dream job for a ludicrous amount of money

B) My Hated job for an insanely ludicrous amount of money

C) A job that I have ambivalent feelings for but is offering even more money than the other two

It's a no brainer, I choose my dream job. At what point is being financially sound enough? I live 40 miles away from NYC in one of the most expensive areas in the country, and I can state for a fact that the cost of living is significantly cheaper in Baltimore. I realize I don't have $140 million, but I can't see cost of living decreasing that drastically as money goes up. $140 million or 180 million, he and his children (and his children's children) are practically set for life. (According to the cost of living calculator, the Orioles offer of $140 million would require $250 million in NYC).

And according to the radio stations around here, within 2 hours of receiving the offer from the Yankees, he accepted it. He just wanted to be a Yankee all along, and, if anything, was upset at their initial offer, and waited for them to come up with a better offer. The Orioles never really had a chance.

In my opinion you are 100% correct.

The Orioles did not have a chance.

[Malike]

Its ignorant at best to call the Orioles opening offer a "lowball". It was for 1 year less and $2.5M per year less than he ultimately signed for. So there is no credence to any speculation that the Orioles pissed him off with an initial offer.

I haven't been around the hear all the stuff that came out after the signing, but I am absolutely livid that the Orioles didn't match/beat the Yankees offer unless one or both of the following is true:

1) They did match/beat the offer but Tex took less to go elsewhere

2) In order to sign here, Tex demanded an opt out after the 3rd year and no later.

If neither of those first two are true, then I am completely furious with the way the Orioles handled things. I don't believe for a second that Tex would not have come here for the highest offer. Missing out on Tex, assuming neither of the two previously mentioned caveat's completely balances out any good MacPhail has done in his time here, and brings him down to a completely average to below average grade for his time here so far, IMO. the Bedard and Tejada trades were still great, but at this point I would much rather have had another GM getting slightly less for Tejada and Bedard and sign Tex than have what MacPhail got for those guys and completely screwing up the Tex race.

I also place the entirety of the blame for not getting Tex on MacPhail and not Angelos. I don't doubt for a second that Angelos would have opened up the bank to get Tex. I think MacPhail convinced him spending over $20M on Tex wasn't a good move, which I completely disagree with. I would have been fine with any combination of years and salary that stayed under the $200-208M total money range.

You seriously think Tex was worth an 8/200 or 8/208 deal? Wow, just wow.

[Mackus]

You seriously think Tex was worth an 8/200 or 8/208 deal? Wow, just wow.

He's easily worth $25M+ over the first 6 years of the deal at least, no doubt in my mind about that.

I'd go extra to get the deal done. But as is painfully obvious, it wouldn't have even taken that much. 8/$192M would have been a great deal for the O's, IMO.

[Orioles West]

In my opinion you are 100% correct.

The Orioles did not have a chance.

I think they had a chance, but not a great one.

It really does appear he wanted to play for a winning team now and not be a cornerstone to build around and maybe win later.

This has been a fairly tough pill for me to swallow, but I think even if the Birds ' initial offer was higher, he was determined to go elsewhere.

-Don

[Oriolesfan1988]

He's easily worth $25M+ over the first 6 years of the deal at least, no doubt in my mind about that.

I'd go extra to get the deal done. But as is painfully obvious, it wouldn't have even taken that much. 8/$192M would have been a great deal for the O's, IMO.

As shown in quotes from Schmuck and others it seems he didn't have much of an interest to being with the Orioles. I cannot fault the Front Office in regards with that if Tex didn't want to be here.

[Birds7]

I am absolutely livid that the Orioles didn't match/beat the Yankees offer.

They were never given a chance to meet or beat, they were pretty much told that there was no interest. So, they could have offered the same, but they were not given the chance to do so. Instead they were steered toward other players that Boras represented. The same thing Vlad's agents did when he was a F/A.

[OsEatAlEast]

He's easily worth $25M+ over the first 6 years of the deal at least, no doubt in my mind about that.

IMO

I just shot Pepsi out of my nose!

And I'm a Coke drinker!

[Orioles West]

He's easily worth $25M+ over the first 6 years of the deal at least, no doubt in my mind about that.

I'd go extra to get the deal done. But as is painfully obvious, it wouldn't have even taken that much. 8/$192M would have been a great deal for the O's, IMO.

I still wonder, based on Boras' comments about Tex wanting to win now, that even if Baltimore offered 8/192, he wouldn't have taken it.

That aside, I agree that 8/192 would have been worth the effort, to try to find a cornerstone to build around.

-Don

[bird watcher]

That is just simply lame, at what point is enough money enough? I mean what is the difference whether you are making 20 or 22 million a year. This is simply some Boras BS. He saw more $$ by signing with new york, plain and simple. When its all said and done, Tex will be looked at simply as a piece of a losing pie. (the yanks have been trying to buy a ring for 8 years, what makes them think this will work). Instead Tex could have possibly become an icon for a city that needs one. His loss.

Would you turn down 20% more money over the next 8 years? I wouldn't.:scratchchinhmm:

[MemphisOsFan]

Did you even read that article? Tex wanted to avoid going to Boston. He didn't want to play for the Nationals obviously because they were the worst team in MLB and he had no ties. The Yankees were willing to offer him enough money and the fact he didn't have to play in Boston or for the worst team in baseball. The Orioles could have been the preferred alternative to Boston.

He's said he's wanted to play in Baltimore in the past, but the Orioles never gave him a reason to play there. They had the lowest offer and weren't willing to go much higher. Tex wasn't going to take a hometown discount but he probably would have signed for 8/180 if the Orioles had offered it. Now the Yankees might have beat that or might have not, but the Orioles had much more of a shot in the Tex sweepstakes than they are telling everybody.

They just chose not to be players...

Yes, I read the article a couple of times on different websites. All indications and the way that the negotiations went point to Tex not wanting to come here to play for the Orioles.

I think that the first paragraph in the article and the one that you posted points to this conclusion.

With the focus of every signing or trade being on the rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox, this needs to be said first about the Yankees’ signing of Mark Teixeira. The Yankees didn’t snatch him away from the Red Sox because they outbid or outsmarted the Red Sox. Teixeira didn’t sign with the Red Sox, a baseball official said, because he and his wife, especially his wife, didn’t want to live in Boston. If necessary, they were going to choose the big bad city of New York, and they did.

“He just didn’t want to go to Boston,” the official said. “He didn’t want to be a Red Sox so Boras called the Yankees and said he really wants to be a Yankee.”

Reading into the conversation with Tex and his wife, I would have thought that if the Orioles or even the Nationals were towards the top of Tex's list, then why would they consider the MFY? Why were the MFY considered a choice if Tex wanted to sign with the Orioles or play 'close to home'?

I could be reading into this too much, but if Tex and/or his wife wanted to 'stay close to home' then I feel that their options would have been playing for the Orioles or Nationals, hands down.

I am not saying that I know what they talked about in their conversations but I worked as a private contractor for many years and conversations with my wife over the cities that we would live in, the amount that I would take and/or the places that she would not consider living in came into play.

I can see your opinion on why you think that the Orioles messed up this opportunity but I think that most of the anger that has been presented here should go towards Tex more than the FO. Tex wanted to win and the Orioles and their 10 years of loosing plus not knowing the direction of the Orioles probably played a big part in this equation. Why would Tex go to a loser when he could go to a team with a track record of winning. Yes, the MFY haven't been to the WS in years but look at the state of the Orioles.

On the other side, I can also foresee his wife asking him if he would be happy playing on a loosing team for the next couple of years since being from the area, they probably tracked the progress of the team in print, etc for several years.

[eastonguy]

It didn't matter what we or the Nationals offered to him, he wanted to win now.

"I think the Nationals did everything they could do both with their economic commitment, the time and effort that was made in every attempt to bring Mark to Washington," Boras said. "From the ownership level to the baseball level, it was a very concerted and professional approach they took to Mark, he was very impressed with what Washington did. I think the major consideration in the end was that he felt in his career he really needed to be working for a club that would be giving him an opportunity to win now."

[Tony-OH]

I suggest you read this article:

So there you have it folks. Tex wanted to be a Yankee so he didn't have to go to Boston. Had the Orioles stepped up their offer to begin with, he probably would have signed with them. But since they lowballed him to begin with and wouldn't raise the offer, he basically eliminated them from contention IMO...

So while Tex should be booed for choosing the Yankees, he only chose them because he didn't really have much of an alternative...

I'm not sure how you came up with that. He did not want to be a Red Sox so Boras called the Yankees. Not the Orioles, not the Nationals, but the Yankees.

If Teixeira had any intention of wanting to be an Oriole he would have instructed Boras to check back with the Orioles and ask them to match the Yankees offer. He did not.

Tex wanted to be a Yankee pure and simple. I know it's hard for some to believe that local kid would want that, but let's remember, we're talking about a multi-millionaire who doesn't live here anymore.