2
2013
Being Brutally Honest Is Somewhat Refreshing
An article by 
If you haven’t checked out this interview with Mark Teixeira by Dan Barbarisi of the Wall Street Journal, you should. After all, how often is it that you see a $200 million dollar ballplayer who is on the decline say something like this…
“I have no problem with anybody in New York, any fan, saying you’re overpaid. Because I am,” Teixeira said. “We all are.”
“Agents are probably going to hate me for saying it,” he continued. “You’re not very valuable when you’re making $20 million. When you’re Mike Trout, making the minimum, you are crazy valuable. My first six years, before I was a free agent, I was very valuable. But there’s nothing you can do that can justify a $20 million contract.”
Aside from the 2009 season when he delivered an MVP season (.292/.383/.565, 39 HR, 122 RBI) during his first season in New York, Teixeira, hasn’t come close to justifying the eight-year, $180 million contract he agreed to with Yankees.
“Maybe I’m slowing down a tick. Look, I’m not going to play forever. Eventually you start, I don’t want to say declining, but it gets harder and harder to put up 30 and 100. I’d love to get back to the player that I’ve always been, but if I hit .250, .260, instead of .280, so be it.”
Teixeira is still owed $90 million through 2016, $22.5M annually, and lets face it, he’s been steadily declining for three straight seasons. In 2012, Tex connected for just 27 home runs, the lowest season total in his career, and the aches and pains are becoming more and more frequent.
Check out the full article and interview by Barbarisi, because it’s not everyday you’ll see a high-priced ballplayer come to grips with himself and be open enough to admit he is in decline and grossly overpaid.
I’m almost certain that the Players Association and agents everywhere were none to pleased after reading some of these comments. There must be a lot of grimacing and squirming going on this morning.
That said, kudos to Tex for pretty much telling it like it is. Regardless of everything else, I give him extra points for his integrity on this. He was brutally honest and it was refreshing to say the least.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 41 | 28 | .594 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 34 | .500 | 6.5 |
| Phillies | 33 | 37 | .471 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 39 | .391 | 13.5 |
| Marlins | 21 | 47 | .309 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/16/2013
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Im not sure brutally honest is much better than lyiing to us about his skills like Aroid does.
No it is better and kudos to Mark Texeira who i always liked. On the other hand I’m recently noticing that lying is becoming an all too common practice and scarily becoming too accepted in our society these days starting with how it’s being handled in the media. And that acceptance can dangerously filter down to an impressionable fan base, audience or just anybody because they see it being accepted and rationalized on a larger scale then they think it’s okay. We have one member of this blog who’s a writer here who is quite adept at that too.
Its a good thing we paid David Wright to be an ambassador for the team !!!
imagine if that 138 mil was just for his production…
sweet jesus…
we might’ve overpaid !
I agree we may well rue the Wright contract. I do not understand how David was treated so differently than R.A. Dickey.
I met Tex this November when he was a guest at one of my events for work. He was a pretty cool guy minus his handler needing a ride home from us rather than his handler taking a cab or getting a car himself. I still don’t get that.
I digress.
What I find most comical about this is, he’d never give the money back. Great – you say you aren’t worth it now, what does that do for the yanks and their fans? Nothing.
At the end of the day your dollar value on your contract doesn’t matter in terms of your performance. It’s about the concept that your contract may or may not keep your team from improving in other areas.
Tex not being worth 22.5million in 2013 is a “no sh..” statement. But that’s what he wanted, and because of that – the yanks are trying to slash payroll in other areas. If Tex was an MVP this year, the Yanks would still be looking for ways to slash payroll…
I find it hard to believe that any player will ever finish out a massive contract and fans/teams say “we got our moneys worth.”
The key is did you win while he was playing and did he play well and did his contract allow you or stop you from improving the team?
“did you win while he was playing and did he play well and did his contract allow you or stop you from improving the team?”
notice that being a team ambassador has absolutely NOTHING to do with any of this….
Just-Da you may find this very interesting:
Dec. 3, 2012 on David Wright and his contract
“Mike Branda – There are times when you’re not only paying for the player, but you’re paying for the appeasement of the fan base and the appearance of a healthy franchise. Do I think he’s worth that money on his own? No.”
http://metsmerizedonline.com/2012/12/mmo-roundtable-weighing-in-on-the-wright-deal.html
jessep February 2, 2013 at 1:17 pm on Mark Teixera and his contract:
“The key is did you win while he was playing and did he play well and did his contract allow you or stop you from improving the team?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxCdh1Ps48
thanks for reading Bayonne.
The Tex contract and the Wright contract are very different and you know that. You know as well as I do that letting Wright walk away would have been an absolutely devastating business move by the Mets. You know that. Sometimes you have to make smart business moves and hope it pays off for your baseball team. Baseball is a business too. Again is Wright’s performance alone worth $20m or whatever? No. But his value to the franchise makes up for it and if he can play up to his level and his contract doesn’t stop the Mets in future years from making moves – then who cares what his paycheck says?
MLB players and agents try to make the most money they can. The decision for a team is how far will you go with that? If you sign a deal that handcuffs your future then its a mistake. Wright has had his deal for 2 months – so we have no idea what impact it has on the future… because we’re not there yet.
Thanks for commenting!
Expressing himself through the internet is this guy’s strength. In real life, if he had to express himself this way in real time his lying ways would get destroyed in 2 seconds.
aren’t we all expressing ourselves on the internet? have a good weekend bayonne
Another fascinating baseball point by Padildo!
Reply
jessep February 2, 2013 at 2:46 pm
thanks for reading Bayonne.
>The Tex contract and the Wright contract are very different and you know that.
Ummm…exactly how are they “different”…is Wright being paid in beer money??
>You know as well as I do that letting Wright walk away would have been an absolutely >devastating business move by the Mets.
I agree…there is this option called….drum roll please…TRADE…where they can exchange David Wright’s services for another player !!!
>You know that. Sometimes you have to make smart business moves and hope it pays off for >your baseball team. Baseball is a business too.
What are you saying here??? NY is very simple…with or without Wright…if the mets do not WIN…fans do NOT come….is this a COMPLICATED concept for you to grasp ?
>>Again is Wright’s performance alone worth $20m or whatever? No.
hmmmm…so we overpaid !!!
>>But his value to the franchise makes up for it
value to the franchise??? what do you mean by this…i thought players were paid to play…the mets have had 4 straight years of declining revenue with David Wright at 3B….so im not sure how his value translates into revenue….
>and if he can play up to his level and his contract doesn’t stop the Mets in future years from >making moves – then who cares what his paycheck says?
I recall someone saying —>>“The key is did you win while he was playing
and did he play well and did his contract allow you or stop you from improving the team?”
>>>MLB players and agents try to make the most money they can.
Not David…according to him, money was not the most important factor !!!
>>The decision for a team is how far will you go with that?
If you sign a deal that handcuffs your future then its a mistake.
Well considering that you have no idea what future revenue will look like even 2 years from now…its hard to say if a deal signed on 12/1/2012 is going to handcuff you in 2015…
esp if there is a direct correlation between revenue and payroll…
>Wright has had his deal for 2 months – so we have no idea what impact it has on the future… >because we’re not there yet.
ok, so deciding whether a contract is good or not is only made after the fact….
awesome…
now why couldnt any of this logic apply to Jose Reyes ?
Wright + Reyes + all the kids they have together…wouldnt even touch 90 mil after Santana + Bay are off the books next year…
Baseball is a business. Sad reality but nonetheless true.
Teixeira started to decline at age 30, and while he only has 4 years left on his deal, the Mets have Wright who just turned 30 and has 8 years left on his deal. My oh my how is this going to end? Scary stuff, kids.
Welcome to the real world where you pay what the market value is at the time of purchase and as soon as you take it out of the store it decreases in value!
Buy a car at 30K and two weeks later your lucky to get 20K for it…
Are players worth 20Million per year? Hardly but we are the ones who give them the money to buy all those players….(Met fans being the exception recently)
What yuou pay for a player sn’t important…Getting what you thought you might get when you bought him is hard…Even that car I mentioned needs money and work sunk into it to keep it going and it almost NEVER performs as good 3 years from the day you purchased it as the day you purchased it.
Ball players get paid outrageous sums of money because WE want to SEE those players…
Just like Pachino gets 10 Million to be in a film and you could probably find some young kid who can act the part as well, the reason to pay Pachino is the BOX OFFICE ramifications….
People son’t decide to NOT GO to ballgames because Texiera isn’t as good as he used to be.
They DO go knowing he isn’t a scrub going to hold the team back and still has a high chance oif hitting thre game winning HR…
THATS why he gets the big bucks…
Is it worth paying that for a baseball player? Not when compared to what a Cop Makes and does for you…
But we are the ones who vote with our Wallet and Butts…
We go to see the players who get those big contracts more than the kid who does just as well as him but no one has ever really heard of yet.
So we had better learn to deal with that reality because it isn’t going anywhere….
Nice to hear a player tell the truth…
Now if only the Fans would listen to him.
Yankees still make huge profits and the players are the ones working so I never really think anyone is overpaid. How much is the Yankees tv contract and ticket sales and merch? Probably so much that tex is underpaid.
Totally agree that no sports player is worth the amount of $$ that is paid. Thanks to Tex for speaking the truth.
Hi Joe,
Repeating what I said on the KRod thread but all players are grossly overpaid in a business where even one making his first appearance in the majors gets $480,000. I don’t know of any teacher, cop or fireman with 20 years on the job ever making anything remotely resembling that kind of annual salary.
And the average annual wage for registered nurses as of 2011 was one fifth that of a rookie so even a kid gets paid five times more than one who is in the business of saving lives. Nobody in baseball – and that includes the owners – deserves the money they get.
It’s the market that causes this un-proportionate value on one’s worth, not the importance of those services and the hard work that goes into. However, there is not one individual in here who would not try to take full advantage of what he or she could get if given the opportunity.
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291111.htm
In keeping with the being brutally honest is somewhat refreshing theme. I came across this quote by Braves pitcher Tim Hudson regarding PED’s.
“Well, I’m going to be honest with you, I’m pretty sick of hearing about it. I’m pretty sick of people still trying to cheat the system and trying to get an unfair advantage. I think the penalties can be stiffer. I’m ready for it to be over and done with and whatever the penalties are to keep people from doing it.
If it’s the first time you fail something you’re suspended for that year, then so be it. You shouldn’t have been stupid enough to try it. Honestly, I don’t see how in the world somebody is brave enough to even try to do anything right now because, honestly, I think our testing system is pretty often and it’s pretty strict. I don’t see how somebody would do it. I’d be a nervous wreck. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on playing the game of baseball if I knew I was cheating, knowing that at any moment those drug testers are gonna walk in that locker room and you might be on that list to go take a leak in the cup.
I’m really tired of hearing about it. And every time these names start popping up I’m just like, ‘What an idiot.’ That’s the first thing to comes to my mind is ‘What an idiot.”
http://www.talkingchop.com/2013/2/2/3945220/tim-hudson-braves-performance-enhancing-drugs-alex-rodriguez