Mark Teixeira Trade Rumors – Yankees (Red Sox, Braves, Angels, Dodgers) Getting Serious?

Local ESPN radio hosts mentioned that rumors are flying all over the place that as the Yankees may not be dead yet, Cashman is getting more serious about getting a firstbaseman. And as the Rangers and Yankees have been scouting each other for a while for reasons ranging from Bullpen help to possibly Sammy Sosa, they’ve gotten to know each other’s talent pretty well. And while the Yankees were on the sellers-buyers fence at the All-Star break, they’re pulling their typical post-break magic and are suddenly above .500, in 2nd place and only 8 behind Boston. They’ll be buying this month!

In the meantime, rumors have also started circling that the Red Sox may grab Teixeira.  That sounds far fetched to me.  As do rumors about a possible trade with the Ranger-killing Angels.

But, there are substantiated rumors that the Dodgers are interested.  And suddenly the Braves have been mentioned to be in the mix.

Hmmmm.  Has Little Jon DanielsHart finally gotten smart?  The richest teams in baseball are suddenly rumored to be interested in Tex?  That’s every GMs goal when they’re shopping a player, with a Yankees-Red Sox bidding war being a GM’s dream!

Or is more likely that Tex has told Scott Boras what he wants, and they’re not sitting around waiting for Hicks and Daniels to screw things up by their incompetence when it comes to generating buzz and “selling” a player?

Either way, these kinds are rumors are great news for the Rangers, as Tex talk had gotten too quiet for a while. 

Certainly, coming back from the DL red hot in his first 4 games helped. But going hitless since won’t help. If Teixeira really does want to go play for a winner now, he needs to stay consistent. But the multi-million question remains – can DanielsHart finally orchestrate a trade that helps his club more than the team he trades with.  Or will Cashman or John Schuerholz or Theo Epstein give Hicks and DanielsHart another schooling like Cashman, Doug Melvin, Kevin Towers and Jim Bowden already have in recent years?

Robbers Evidence: Bye Bye Buehrle

In several previous posts, I’ve mentioned how Mark Buerhle could have already been a Ranger(https://rangersorrobbers.wordpress.com/2007/04/19/robbers-evidence-exhibit-a-revisited-no-buerhle-no-no/) and should be the free agent pitcher the Rangers sign this winter (https://rangersorrobbers.wordpress.com/2007/06/27/announcing-the-2008-texas-rangers-25-man-roster-2/).

Well, all that’s a pipe dream now as the White Sox resigned Mark Buehrle to a 4-year, $54 million contract. 

That narrows the field of starting pitchers the Rangers should consider signing this winter (Buehrle topped my list, and I think only Carlos Zambrano could be argued to be a better signing amongst the would-be class of winter free agents).

And without a single starter with a winning record or an ERA under 5.30 going into this week’s All-Star break, a shrinking free=agent pool increases the pressure on Ron Washington and pitching coach Mark Connor to develop at least one (if not two) of the young or trying-to-comeback Rangers pitchers into a contributing starter who can win more games than he loses (in order of liklihood at present:  Loe, McCarthy, Wright, Tejeda, Hurley, Wood, Koronka, Rheinecker, Rupe).  It also makes the return to form of Millwood and Padilla more important, because the caliber of free-agent starter the Rangers can sign this winter just went down unless they ink Zambrano, which I don’t think is likely nor do I think he’d be worth the price as he’s not a great fit for the Rangers or The Ballpark.  That probably means Millwood will be the Opening Day starter again, and he’s really a #2 at best.  Finally, it puts more importance on Jon DanielsHart and Hicks getting a trade done (and done well) with Teixeira – as Tex is the only chip they have left to acquire a pitcher with top-of-the-rotation talent (Chad Billingsly is looking really nice at this point – maybe too nice for the Dodgers to part with after going 1-0 in 2 July starts with a 2.25 era and 14 Ks in 12 IP). 

So congratulations to Buehrle and the White Sox, and to Tom Hicks, the Rangers front office and coaching staff and their pitchers aspiring to be worth a spot in a competitive major league rotation:  TIME TO GET ROLLING!