According to CBS New York's Sean Hartnett, the Yankees deserve a lot more than they're getting from Mark Teixeira:
Do Yankees Deserve More Than Tex Is Giving Them?
His numbers as a whole have taken a slide each year as a Yankee. While still putting up terrific power statistics, Teixeira’s batting average and on-base percentage have fallen steadily in each of the past two years. In 2010, his average dropped to .256 and OBP fell to .365. This year, those statistics have again taken a nosedive as Teixeira is batting .248 with a diminished OBP of .346.
This isn’t what the Yankees expected from a player that they’re paying $22.5 million dollars annually. From his second major league season with the Texas Rangers to his first year in New York, Mark was a minimum .281 hitter. In his last two seasons before hitting the free agent market, Teixeira batted .306 and .308 respectively and carried OBPs of .400 or above.
Maybe Henry and the Red Sox knew what they were doing when they refused to raise their offer and meet Scott Boras’ demands.
Yeah, $22.5 million is a lot of money. When the Yankees inked Teixeira, $22.5 million seemed like a lot of money, and it’ll seem like more (even though it’s less, with inflation) in 2016, the last season of the contract. Teixeira will turn 36 that season, and likely won’t rank among the dozen or so first basemen in the majors.
Right now, though? He’s still pretty damned good. Which is plenty good enough for the Yankees.
The Yankees have a number of players who aren't as good as their salaries suggest they should be ... Which fits perfectly into the Yankees' business model. What they lose in performance, they gain in assurance. Is CC Sabathia the best pitcher in the major leagues, commensurate with his salary? No, but it doesn't matter. Is Alex Rodriguez the best third baseman, or Derek Jeter the best shortstop, or Mark Teixeira the best first baseman? No, no, no.
But it doesn’t matter.
Here’s where each of the Yankees’ regulars ranks in the majors, according to FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement:
C: 7
1B: 4
2B: 5
SS: 13
3B: 4
LF: 4
CF: 4
RF: 6
Shortstop’s a special case, obviously. Otherwise the Yankees are well in the top quartile at every position. Are they overpaying Mark Teixeira and a few of the other guys? Of course they are. They’re also second in the league in scoring (and road scoring) and (obviously) heading to the playoffs yet again.
Getting back to Teixeira, fourth is pretty good. Yeah, the Red Sox are lucky to have Adrian Gonzalez instead of Teixeira, to whom they offered a great deal of money before he took even more money to play for the Yankees (because that's what players do, generally). Yeah, the Yankees would be better with Gonzalez, or Joey Votto or Miguel Cabrera. Albert Pujols. Maybe Prince Fielder, in the coming seasons. But right now the Yankees are really good, and Teixeira's one of the bigger reasons.
He can get bigger, too. Teixeira’s only real “problem” this season is his .248 batting average, the lowest of his career. But Teixeira seems to have been exceptionally unlucky this season. He entered 2011 with a .303 career batting average on balls in play (batted balls minus home runs). The best predictor of future BABiP is past BABiP.
This season, Teixeira is batting .230 on balls in play. Even though his line-drive, ground-ball, fly-ball, et cetera percentages are all approximately in line with his career rates. Teixeira's simply been unlucky, just as Dan Uggla was unlucky for the first three months of the season.
Don't worry about Mark Teixeira, or the New York Yankees. I'm pretty sure everyone's going to be fine.
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