4:01pm: Peter Gammons of ESPN writes the Yankees are just being American.
1:26pm: FOXSports.com’s Dayn Perry believes the Yankees are taking a risk with the Teixeira deal. Perry points out that the Yankees’ spending will add even more pressure onto the franchise to win. He also thinks the Yankees needed to make this deal.
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Former pitcher Jim Kaat is in line with Perry. Kaat believes there will be an adjustment period for all three of the Yankees’ big signings. He writes that players sometimes try too hard to live up to their big contracts in the first season, and that could take place here.
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Murray Chass says Mark Teixeira banned himself from Boston.
11:33am: Add Rays skipper Joe Maddon to the list of baseball people who aren’t scared by the Yankees’ recent moves. This, via Mike DiGiovanna and the LA Times.
10:01am: Since this is the major topic today — unless anything breaks — I’ll update this periodically.
- Buster Olney of ESPN weighs in on the winners and losers of the Teixeira deal.
- Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post writes that the Washington Nationals’ attempt to sign Teixeira was admirable. He says the Nationals showed they are willing to spend money, although a need to gain credibility as a franchise stood in the way of them and Teixeira.
- Check out this post from Tuesday for more notes regarding the deal.
8:49am:
- Sports Illustrated and Tom Verducci have a Q&A posted about the Yankees’ deal with Mark Teixeira. In short, Verducci likes the move for the Yankees.
- “WE’RE BACK!” At least Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan says about the Yankees and the Steinbrenner family’s spending.
- Boston fans lost a big present from under the Christmas tree, Adam Kilgore of the Globe writes.
- Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer opines that the Yankees are bad for sports. He cites the national economic struggles as a top reason the Teixeira/Yankees deal makes no sense.
- On the opposite end of the spectrum, Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle writes that the Yankees’ signing is good for baseball.
- Orioles fans are upset that the hometown boy will only be returning to town wearing Yankees gray, Baltimore Sun’s Childs Walker writes.
- Mike Lupica of the N.Y. Daily News wonders if the Yankees have spent enough this offseason to “buy back a World Series.”
- Besides an apology to his wife for reporting from his vacation, New York Post writer Joel Sherman notes how Teixeira turns 29 in April. The new Yankees have become younger, he adds. He slips in that Manny Ramirez never made sense for the Yankees.
- Bill Burt of the North Andover (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune writes the Red Sox didn’t want Teixeira enough to pull the trigger on the deal. He adds that the Sox will do nothing — and that they don’t need to.