Teixeira And Yankees Agree To An Eight-Year Deal
December 23, 2008 by Mike
It appears that the deal came down to a six-million dollar difference, and the Red Sox reluctance to include a no-trade clause in the contract. Our sources indicated that a deal had been agreed upon in principle with Teixeira sometime yesterday, but the New York Yankees swooped-in and did what it took to get a deal done, i.e. sweetening the pot and adding the full no-trade clause which was crucial for the deal. Teixeira wanted no part of playing for the Nationals, even though they offered the most money, so it came down to playing for the Red Sox or Yankees. This was a huge loss for the Red Sox, who thought they had a deal done with Teixeira. For the past year the Red Sox have been counting on signing the first basemen. Onto Derek Lowe or Jake Peavy. More from Jon Heyman:
The Yankees have reached an agreement in principle to sign Mark Teixeira, SI.com has learned, beating out the rival Red Sox for the free-agent slugger’s services.
Teixeira, who hit .308 with 33 home runs and 121 RBIs in 2008, will receive an eight-year, $180 million deal from the Yankees with a full no-trade provision.
The Yankees quietly remained in contact with the Teixeira camp, but after spending $243.5 million on star starting pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, they didn’t appear anxious to be the market setter.
The Red Sox threw a curveball late last week when owner John Henry announced they were no longer “going to be a factor” following a meeting at Teixeira’s Dallas-area house. But after a little while, it became clear that Henry only meant that they intended not to up their bid, not that they were pulling out of the derby entirely.
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i’m glad you broke this story yesterday…….
and by the way, your site sucks