Boston Red Sox Have Questions to Answer After Pulling Out of Mark Teixeira Race

Uhhhh...what?

That was the first reaction I had when I heard Red Sox owner John Henry sent out an email Thursday night to key media members indicating the team was out of the running for free agent Mark Teixeira.

From his email: "We met with Mr. Teixeira and were very much impressed with him. After hearing about his other offers, however, it seems clear that we are not going to be a factor."

While never made public, it's believed that Boston's offer was for eight years at $22 million per season. However, long contracts are not what the Red Sox are known for and there has been talk that agent Scott Boras was looking for a 10-year deal.

The rumored teams involved in the race were Boston, Baltimore, Anaheim, Washington and the New York Yankees, and it was believed that a deal with Boston would be finalized within the next day or so. If you believe Henry, that is now not going to happen.

By the way, the guy that is making all this a story is a 28-year-old switch hitter with a career .290 average, 34 home runs and 113 RBI in six seasons. Teixeira also owns two Gold Gloves. All in all, not too shabby a dude to have out there every day.

Some obvious questions:

- Is it really over or is this just a swerve? Fox's Ken Rosenthal thinks Boston is still in the hunt, no matter what. Yankees GM Brian Cashman says they didn't offer more than the Red Sox, and the Angels' offer is reported to be significantly less than Boston's.

The Red Sox have had quite a love-hate relationship with Boras in the past (Johnny Damon, Daisuke Matsusaka, Jason Varitek, etc.) and this could be yet another chapter in what would be a great book.

- How do you deal with Mike Lowell? Just over a year removed from having fans chant 'Bring back Lowell!', the third baseman effectively had his bags packed by Boston fans during this whole story.

Now, it looks like he'll be manning the team's hot corner this season and while Lowell seems like a stand-up guy, you have to imagine he's a bit pissed off by this whole thing.

While money ($12.5 million per for the next two seasons) can often make the worst situation better, sometimes it's not enough to make up for feeling disrespected.

It'll be interested to see what happens here, especially when the media begins to rip at the wounds when spring training starts.

- At what point does Kevin Youkilis demand that he remain at first? If the Red Sox were going to move him over to third base full-time following the Teixeira signing, what would stop them from asking them to do it again a year from now? Two years from now?

There will come a time when Youkilis will want to stop yo-yo'ing back and forth and that could be coming sooner than later.

- If Boston does nothing else this offseason other than a few smaller-level deals, how do you satiate a fanbase that was already prepared for this big free agent splash?

Even without Teixeira, the Sox offense was potent last season and looks to be as fearful this season. But how players coming back from injury like Ortiz and Lowell hold up in 2008, whether the team's fourth outfielder can make up the offensive slack for when J.D. Drew gets hurt and how much you can expect out of the shortstop and catcher positions are what I have a tough time answering.

Teixeira's signing would help alleviate some of the consequences if the answers to those questions aren't what GM Theo Epstein wants to hear. If you believe Henry's statement though, that's a risk he's willing to take.

Josh Nason - josh [at] smallwhiteball [com] - is the publisher and main writer of Small White Ball, an all-encompassing sports blog that began in 2007. You can also read on mixed martial arts, boxing and pro wrestling at brother site RopesRingandCage.com. If you're using any part of this post, please link back to www.smallwhiteball.com. Thank you!