Teixeira Obviously...

By now we all know the news that the Yankees got Teixeira, signing him for $180m over 8 years. The Yankees used to sign the best pitcher available when they needed it (Mussina 2001) then the best hitter the next year when they needed it (Giambi 2002), but now they decided to sign the best pitcher and hitter with Sabathia and Teixeira and add on AJ Burnett for a cool $82m as a bonus prize. Amazing that with all these signings the Yankees are still under last years payroll. Nobody was complaining (or at least as much) when Yankees were rumored to add on Mike Cameron's $10m contract with Pettitte's $10m offer, totaling $20m, so what's to complain about them adding $22m with Teix. If you didn't like the Yankees before you definitely don't like them now, and if you did you are pretty darn excited.

People are calling that there will now be talk about a salary cap because of what the Yankees are doing. That doesn't make sense to me, when the Yankees had a higher payroll last year who was complaining as loudly as they are now? This shouldn't be a surprise that without a salary cap some team will come in and land all the top free agents. I guess before the problem was masked, and now it's out in the open for everyone to see. the Steinbrenner's aren't the richest owners in baseball, they just spend the most on their team. The Yankees also just paid around $27m in luxury tax to the other teams. Are the Twins not going to cash those checks until they get a salary cap? Nope. The Yankees somehow found a way to cut payroll and create all this fuss. The Yankees are the Yankees and I don't know if a cap can take that away from them, they'll always do their best to win.

I'm not sure exactly how all of this went down and I'm sure we'll find out soon if it's not out already. But the little I've heard seems as though no one was sure the Yankees were really in on Teix, and as Boston tried playing mind games with Teixeira and Boras claiming they weren't targeting him anymore, the Yankees slipped in under the radar and snagged him up. If that's kind of what happened then that's sweet on Cashman's part, sneaking in like that and getting the best hitter available (if not the best player) without anyone really thinking a deal was close, while sticking it to the Yankees biggest rival.

What's this mean for the Yankees? Pretty easy, they are the obvious favorites to win it all. By no means does it mean they will, but with this offseason they should. I wonder if Joe Girardi likes this move. Before this he was expected to win, but maybe getting to the ALCS or World Series would have been enough to keep his job. Now I'm not sure if the Yankees aren't 10 games above .500 in May if he'll have his job. The Yankees CF problem could be fixed now with Swisher playing there, Teix at 1st and Matsui DHing. They have 4 great starting pitchers and if you couple that with the new lineup, they may not need a guy like Pettitte to round out the rotation although it certainly wouldn't hurt. I'm sure Kennedy, Aceves, and Hughes are happy about Teix if it means they'll get a shot to start.

It's hard to predict someone to win 95 games or so in a season, but on paper I don't know how you'd expect less, but as they say that's why we play the games. The Yankees used to have the best lineups in recent years and the pitching held them back. Before the Teix signing everyone knew the lineup wasn't going to be the same as it was in years past, especially considering Damon/Matsui/Jeter aging and the up in the air quality of Cano, but with their revamped pitching staff you figured the Yankees would get away with it (not that it was bad, but it wasn't going to be the best). Now with Teix, they addressed the lineup adding the best hitter there was available, at least the best still in his prime. It's one thing to spend or overspend on players you think are good but are just ok, it's another to spend on the best of the best. Health is no sure thing and Sabathia and Burnett could flame out, but that would be a shock. There should be no performance surprises with their free agent signings, they signed arguably the top 3 players available. Overpaying (not that they did) for Teixeira won't hurt you as much as giving $10m+ for 4 years to Kyle Lohse if you get my drift. Now, I've been saying this a lot around some friends but I think it's true, if you're playing a video game it's hard to have this kind of offseason. Surely if you go after Sabathia in the game someone sneaks up on you and gets Teixeira, but I guess there aren't recessions in video games...