The Nest

Conventional wisdom had Mark Teixeira headed east for the 2009 season. Boston was thought to have been his destination. He may indeed play in Fenway Park next season but it will be in Yankee pinstripes.

The thinking was that since the Yanks had spent so much on their latest aquisitions, C. C. Sabathia at $161 million and A.J. Burnett at $243.5 million, they’d pass on the mega deal to Teixeira.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that bringing Teixeira to Boston didn’t make much sense unless they were planning on dealing Mike Lowell and until I had a conversation with my brother-in-law, Epstein’s thinking was a mystery to me. His theory is that the Theo is trying to bankrupt the Yankees by pretending to be in the hunt for the power-hitting first baseman, helping to drive up the price and then letting New York “steal” him – for the hefty price tag. Epstein knows that Steinbrenner has a “deep pockets” mentality and if they’re dumb enough to spend beyond their means…oh well!

I know it sounds far-fetched but think about it. There was really no place to put Teixeira. Trading Lowell and moving Youk to third would have weakened the team more than adding Teixeira would have strengthened it.

Epsteins a pretty smart guy, but is he sly enough to bait old Hank into swooping in at the 11th hour to take the coveted first baseman away from the Sox? And if the Bronx Bombers do run into financial problems, will the feds bail them out?

teixeira yankees red sox steinbrenner