AL Notes: Teixeira, Beltre, Heaney, Rays

Mark Teixeira has previously told reporters that he feels like he can play until he’s 40 years old, and the 35-year-old Yankees first baseman doubled down on those comments following last night’s win over the Astros, as MLB.com’s Barry M. Bloom writes. Teixeira said last night that he hopes to play for five to six more seasons beyond the 2016 campaign, adding that he would love to remain in Yankee pinstripes for the remainder of his playing days. “I’ve loved playing here,” said Teixeira. “I’ve loved every minute of it. … I mean, once you’ve played for the Yankees you’ve reached the pinnacle of Major League Baseball. It’s just tough to see myself in another uniform.” Of course, the Yankees’ roster, as currently constructed, could complicate that possibility. Alex Rodriguez is a strict DH now and is signed through 2017, while the Yanks have a highly promising young first base option in the form of Gregory Bird. While Bird will miss the 2016 campaign due to shoulder surgery and could therefore be rusty heading into next season, he looked plenty comfortable against MLB pitching in his 2015 debut after impressing at the Triple-A level as well.

More from the American League…

• Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre told reporters, including Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, that he is still waiting on a contract proposal from the Rangers following yesterday’s loss to the Angels. Grant writes that the Rangers’ hesitation, unsurprisingly, is likely due to Beltre’s age. The three-year deal he seeks would cost Texas something in the vicinity of $60MM, and the Rangers must weigh whether that type of investment in Beltre’s age-38 through age-40 seasons is a better course of action than trusting a high-upside but unproven prospect, Joey Gallo, to man the position while making scarcely more than $1.5MM (total) in his pre-arbitration seasons over that same time frame.
• Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney was relieved after receiving encouraging news following an MRI, writes the Orange County Register’s Jeff Fletcher. “I saw the MRI for myself,” Heaney explained. “Obviously I’m not a doctor, but the way they explained it to me, it looked perfectly sound and healthy,” he added in reference to his ulnar collateral ligament. The words “forearm tightness” have become increasingly frightening in recent years, as that can often be a precursor to Tommy John surgery, but the MRI makes two waves of evaluations that seem to indicate a healthy UCL for Heaney. In his absence, the Halos will turn to Nick Tropeano to step into the rotation, though as Fletcher notes, Tropeano didn’t exceed four innings in an appearance in Spring Training. With Tropeano and Jered Weaver both limited in terms of endurance at this time, there could be some extra stress placed on the ’pen.
• Former big league right-hander Jeremy Sowers is beginning to carve out a career on the baseball operations side of the game as a member of the Rays organization, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Sowers’ final big league game came in 2009, and since that time he received an MBA from North Carolina. After briefly working in the corporate world, Sowers took a 2015 internship with the Rays, who eventually hired him as a Major League operations assistant. Sowers is working with the Rays’ advance scouting process, and he’s also an integral part of the club’s instant replay process as well as the “information flow with [the Rays’] players and coaches,” per president Matt Silverman.