Ex-All-Star says free agency can be a nightmare
LAS VEGAS – It should be the greatest time of their professional lives.
You are wined and dined, courted and flirted, with riches beyond your wildest imagination awaiting.
Yet as much envy Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are drawing while on the precipice of becoming the richest free agents in baseball history, former All-Star first baseman Mark Teixeira cautions that this free agent period can be a nightmare for players.
It was 10 years ago that Teixeira was the kingpin of a free agent class, receiving an eight-year, $180 million contract from the Yankees.
“The free agent agent process was not fun at all,” Teixeira told USA TODAY. “I was glad I was only a free agent one time. It was a tough time. There’s a lot of stress.
“I knew I was going to sign a longterm contract, so you’re basically making a decision that you’re locking you and your family up for eight years to a city. I had never won a championship, so you want to put yourself in the best position to win one, pick the right team and the right city.
“The hard part is that everybody has their thoughts. Everybody has their advice. From the time the season ended to announce my signing with the Yankees, I had to answer questions from my friends, family, fans and people in the grocery stores and on the streets.”
These days, Teixeira is making sure he isn’t a free agent again. He signed a multiyear contract with ESPN that was announced Monday. He’ll continue to be an analyst for ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown” while being their primary analyst for their showcase events including the All-Star Game and postseason games.
“I love it; I have the coolest job in the world,” Teixeira says. “I’ve always been a baseball fan, and talk about why teams are good or bad, or what contracts are right or wrong, and now I get to be paid for it.”
He also has no desire at this point to wear a uniform again, though he doesn’t rule out a front office role.
“I have zero desire to go on the field,” Teixeira said, “but I’m leaving the door open possibly for some sort of consultant role. I have friends that are working as managers and GMs, and if a friend asked me to help him out, I might help out in a part-time capacity. But that’s it.”
Teixeira, just like everyone else in the baseball world, is curious to see where Harper and Machado land. The Phillies and White Sox are the only teams that are actively pursuing both, but there’s enough misinformation and misdirection to make anyone’s head spin.
“I’m just so glad I started my career pre-Twitter and social media,” said Teixeira, who chose the Yankees over the Red Sox, Nationals and Angels. “You’re really not supposed to be negotiating through the media. It’s part of the hot stove. There are websites dedicated to this.
“But the guys who suffer are the players. There’s all this misinformation with guys denying and confirming everything.”
It has already started with Harper and Machado, with teams spinning their versions of their meet-and-greets with Harper and debunking their potential interest.
“These guys have put up numbers, they’re young, and there will be a wide range of offers,” Teixeira said. “Some teams will view them as franchise-altering players, but there will be a lot of teams who say, ‘I don’t care how young you are, I’m not going to give you an eight- or 10-year contract.’
“What it might come down to for Manny and Bryce is whether they want the years or the AAV (annual average value) in their contract.”
And if they can’t make up their mind, well, Teixeira has advice.
“The thing that really helped me was that I made a chart,” Teixeira said. “I listed all of the teams, ranked them based on importance with all of the different factors. I ended up making a very analytical decision and then followed it with my heart.
“The Yankees were the right choice. It was perfect for me and family.
“Hopefully for Bryce and Manny, they can be as fortunate as I was.”