The Rebuffed Suitors

With the Mark Teixeira saga now appeared to be over and the Yankees the victors, there are a handful of teams that thought they were or might have been in the running for Teixeira’s services at first base that now have to move on to other plans.

Boston seems like the easiest. They never had a hole at first base, they seemed to be pursuing Teixeira more out of pure interest and payroll room than any pressing need. All signs point to them simply staying at the status quo with Youkilis at first base. If Mike Lowell’s recovery doesn’t go smoothly, they could end up moving Youkilis back to third to cover there and that would open up a hole at first base, but reports so far have been positive for Lowell.

Anaheim has an in house candidate, Kendry Morales, for first base (how does that Kotchman trade look now?), but with a line-up hurting for offense there is still the chance that they pursue one of Pat Burrell or Adam Dunn and stick him at first base. Dunn would make the more sense of the two as Anaheim’s lineup is already stacked with right-handed hitters, but adding either of them to first base (or even the outfield) would further worsen their defense and almost certainly wouldn’t be worth the overall cost.

Baltimore could turn back to Kevin Millar for another one-year go-around or they could aim to try acquiring and giving auditions to some languishing AAAA players like Tampa did with Carlos Pena a few years back. With the Rays, Red Sox and a newly reloaded Yankees in their division, it’s not like the Orioles have to be fully focused on trying to fight for a playoff spot this season.

In the nation’s capital, the Washington Nationals are already under the financial burden of Dmitri Young, currently on their Triple-A roster, at $5 million and Nick Johnson for $5.5 million. At least losing out on Teixeira means they will have the opportunity to give Johnson a fifteenth chance to stay healthy. And never fear, because they just signed Corey Patterson!