Uh-oh! Mark Teixeira Heating Up for New York Yankees

Through the years, the New York Yankees have made many expensive investments, only to see the top-dollar players crumble. Pitcher Carl Pavano has been the most prominent example.

The righthander was signed after helping the Florida Marlins defeat the Yankees in the 2003 World Series, given a four-year, $39.5 million contract. He did not live up to the contract by any means, spending a majority of his three seasons with the team on the disabled list.

Disliked bitterly by his teammates, he was referred to as the “15-day Pavano,” rightfully, and cleverly so, since he made only 26 starts and won nine games during his tenure with the team. New York–the city, fans, media, and the team–couldn’t wait for him to leave, which he did via free agency following the 2008 season.

In The Yankee Years, co-written by ex-manager Joe Torre and Tom Verducci, Torre delves into the disagreements he had with the front office—mainly General Manager Brian Cashman (his last name clearly fits his persona)—regarding the possibility of signing players to lengthy contracts.

Torre made the point that going after the top talent wasn’t necessary a recipe for success. He was right, as the Yankees, despite signing the likes of Pavano, Randy Johnson, Jason Giambi, and Alex Rodriguez for a total of $466 million over 24 years in contract, throughout his final eight years at the helm.

If New York’s management wasn’t so obtuse, they would have learned from their ill-advised spending sprees. The $466 million spent on four players didn’t amount to a single World Series championship.

Yet, this past offseason, fresh of booing Pavano out the door, the Yankees opened their checkbook once more. They signed pitcher CC Sabathia and first baseman Mark Teixeira to free-agent deals worth $423 million over 15 years in contract.

If they hadn’t made mistake after mistake in past years, these signings would have been debilitating. So, even though I was depressed for a short period of time, I laughed them off, knowing the deserving trend would undoubtedly continue.

Fittingly, Teixeira, most notably of the two, struggled terribly for the first month and a half of the season.

As he whiffed, bringing out the boo birds on a nightly basis, I took pleasure in speaking to my cousin Matt, a Yankee fan, rubbing in the disappointment of Teixeira’s woeful play with sarcastic jabs like, “Teixeira sure is hitting up a storm…what an investment” then more serious low blows such as, “I see he’s struggling to break .200…three more strikeouts today, huh.”

Matt would respond somberly, saying something to the effect of “Jeez…he’s batting .194…wow.”

Well, these days are over, at least for the time being. For a while it was nice to see Teixeira as the modern-day Pavano, without the mysterious assortment of injuries, of course.

He was dreadful, and alone in the middle of the Yankees lineup because of Rodriguez’s injury. Yet, to my chagrin, Rodriguez is back, and, coincidentally, Teixeira has figured out how to hit again.

The first baseman’s batting average has skyrocketed to .239. This average is still mediocre, but a good sign considering he was batting .191 just seven games ago.

He has 11 hits in his past 25 at-bats in six straight Yankee wins, hitting three homers (including two–one from each side of the plate–to help finish off a sweep of the Minnesota Twins), driving in 11 runs, while scoring six times.

He has caught fire, as have the rest of the Yankees. This resurgence is not the slightest bit startling, since he’s a gifted hitter, as are a majority of his offensive ‘mates. New York will hit, and do so for a better part of the next 4 1/2 months.

Teixeira will be right in the middle of the production, but success in New York is measured in championships. So, though the boos will dwindle and the cheers will increase for Teixeira, if he does not lead the Yankees to their first championship in eight long years, he will join the plethora of others who failed before him.