Well...let's see how the DC Faithful react to the news...
Mark Teixeira signs with the New York Yankees for a reported 8-years and $180M.
I'll admit it, whether or not I thought it was a good idea, I was starting to believe. Especially after reading last night's report that the Washington Nationals had increased their initial offer to free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira from 8-years and $160M to somewhere around 8-years/$178-184M, leading me to speculate that Washington had upped their offer to outpace any of the other teams still in the chase for the 28-year old switch-hitting slugger. Then I remembered...
It's the Yankees' world, we're all just living in it. (mumbles..."$423.5M on 3 players...")
In the end it didn't matter if Washington had been at the high end of their reported $184M dollar offer to Teixeira, because, as MLB.com's Bill Ladson reports in his article on the end of the Nationals' chase entitled, (somewhat misleadingly), "Nationals fall short in Teixeira bidding", quoting another in a seemingly endless supply of anonymous major league sources:
"...Teixeira's agent, Scott Boras, told the Nationals that Texieira wanted to win now and felt the Nationals were not ready to win."
...and the Nationals' attentions, as promised, have quickly turned to free agent 1B/OF/SM** Adam Dunn, (aka "The Bigger Wilkerson"), at least according to Mr. Ladson's article...Washington Post writer Chico Harlan, in his post at the Nationals Journal entitled, "Teixeira to Yankees", writes that he thinks, "Perhaps they will explore Adam Dunn as an alternative, but even that is still a part of internal debate."
It's interesting then, to read the full transcript of last week's live chat with DC GM Jim Bowden now that MLB.com's Bill Ladson has it up in an article entitled, "Bowden takes questions from fans", because one fan asks about the health of the only first baseman who is actually on the Nationals' roster at the moment, Nick Johnson, who, Mr. Bowden reports, has been told by doctors who have examined his wrist, "...that he will be 100-percent by the beginning of Spring Training."
It might be hard to trade a recovering Nick Johnson, but Johnson would have to be moved to make room for Adam Dunn if DC was to sign the free agent to play first since their outfield is already overloaded, and the only mention of a solution to the logjam out there is from MLB.com's Bill Ladson, again in his article, "Nationals fall short in Teixeira bidding", where he writes that since the Nationals don't believe he can play center and because all of their other outfielders are corner outfielders, "(Lastings) Milledge could be trade bait before the season starts."
The popular refrain I'm hearing from the Nationals' fans goes something like, "Sheets, Hudson, Dunn", referring to free agent pitcher Ben Sheets, infielder Orlando Hudson and the aforementioned Adam Dunn. I hope the DC Front Office hears it as well, (and I hope they don't plan on relying on the possibililty that the DC Faithful will just be happy with the fact that they tried to sign Teixeira)...I'd think about adding a few quality players if I were them...and quickly...
(ed. note - " ** = Strikeout Machine")