For the past hour or so, it's been comical to watch/read anchors on ESPN and various columnists saying the Sox are now out of the running (Sean McAdam: "the Sox are now all but conceding that Teixeira is headed elsewhere"). Strikes me as a remarkably naive read of the situation, as if they've never seen a deal get done before. As Furcal has just shown us, nothing is over until there's ink on a contract. Also amusing is the predictable immediate assumption from some Sox fans that he's going to end up with Yankees. Might still happen, anything might still happen, but bear in mind that by all accounts the Yankees haven't actually made *any* offer to Teixeira, so *if* the Sox have been outbid, it's not by them.
Anyhow, here's what we know; For days now, we've been hearing from every commentator, reporter, and anonymous source out there that the Sox were the front-runner, that the other GMs involved thought the Sox had put out the best offer, etc. The Sox brass even flew down to Texas to seemingly seal the deal in person. Then Henry sends out this email saying that "after hearing about his other offers, however, it seems clear that we are not going to be a factor". Confusion and consternation from all directions follows.
The wildcard in all of these that some folks seem to be overlooking is that Scott Boras is a Grade-A douchebag. I would not put it past him at all to sit across the table from Henry and Theo and say "well, we've got this offer for XX dollars more, will you match it" when he has no such offer in his pocket (like when he announced that the Sox had made an offer to Tek when they hadn't, an obvious attempt to shake any other potential suitors into action). From that perspective, it's not so much Henry bluffing as it is Henry calling Boras' bluff; If you've got a better offer, go for it, we've put our offer on the table and that's it. The Sox aren't fools and I wouldn't be surprised if they recognized that this is classic Boras, trying to get a team to bid against themselves. So they put their best offer out there, call his bluff, and leave it to Boras to make the next move.
Other possibilities;
-There really is a higher offer but Tex would rather go to Boston and they're trying to maximize what they get out of Boston before signing anything. For example, maybe there really is a higher offer but it's from Washington. No one wants to go to the Nats, and they are serving the time-honored Boras tradition of "using a team they have no intention to go to in order to drive the price up from teams they DO want to go to". And the Sox are clever enough not to play that game.
-There really is a higher offer but the Sox are making an honest and straight-forward assessment that "this is as high as we're willing to go, anything higher than that doesn't fit our plans". Remember, nothing happens in a vacuum, whatever they might give Teixeira will set a scale which impacts what they have to other players who will be free agents down the line, i.e. Youk etc.
The last time I saw this level of hysteria about the Sox pursuit of a big name star, it was A-Rod. That fell apart when the price got to be just too much. Not getting him turned out not to be the end of the world, turned out not to be doom and gloom. Even when what most Sox fans would consider to be the "worst possible scenario" (he spurns the Sox and goes to the Yankees) occurred, things turned out okay, as I recall. So for those acting as if this is the end of the world, that the Sox are doomed, etc. etc., think back to five years ago, just before xmas 2003, when the A-Rod trade was falling apart. Seems eerily similar. Wasn't the end of the world. No player is worth an infinite bucket of money, no player is truly worth "whatever he asks for" if what he asks for is ridiculous. Every player has a certain value to each team, and if that player insists on too much, you turn it down. When did Teixeira suddenly turn into the "absolute best, must have, can't live without him, puts any team over the top" player? Is he good? No doubt. Can they live without him? Yeah. 29 teams are going to have to, and they aren't all writing off the future because of it.
And as a final note, I just saw this post from Michael Silverman which, in my mind, confirms a lot of what I said above; “The Boston ownership was kind enough to request and travel to meet with Mark Teixeira. While it was a very positive meeting Mark was candid and advised he is in the process of making a decision and is now attempting to eliminate teams.” Does that sound like Boras thinks he's done with the Sox?
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12/19/2008 1:30 AM
