By the time Mark Teixeira opened his mouth Friday to announce that he’d retire at the end of the 2016 season, it wasn’t a secret anymore. The fact had been widely reported and analyzed for six hours.
Still, when Teixeira actually had to say those words out loud the emotion was too much. He starting crying, not even 10 seconds in.
So began an emotional press conference to start what should be an emotional farewell from baseball for Teixeira, the Yankees slugger who would have been a free agent at season’s end. Rather than play the free-agent market ,sign a bounce-back deal somewhere and hope he can remain healthy, Teixeira, 36, has opted to go home.
Teixeira’s time in baseball has been equal parts successful and disappointing. He hit more than 30 homers and drove in more than 100 runs for eight straight seasons before injuries ravaged his career. Now he wants to be his with his family. He wants to spend time with his three kids. It’s time, he said on a few occasions Friday, to do something else.
“As the season went on, I just realized my body can’t do it anymore,” Teixeira said. “If I’m going to grind through seasons not being healthy, I’m going to do something else. I’d rather be at home with my kids than in a training room in Detroit.”
That’s a noble decision. There’s no doubt he could have signed somewhere else next season, collected a few more million to add to the nearly $215 million he made in his 14-year career. So many athletes would have made the other choice, to try to prove their bodies wrong, to go for one more great season or one more ring.
Teixeira wasn’t about that. He’s hitting .198 this season with 10 homers and just 27 RBIs. He’s not worth anywhere near the $23 million the Yankees are paying him. And while he didn’t say those exact words, he knows it.
At one point, he Teixeira specifically addressed Yankees fans, telling them how much of an honor it was so spend eight seasons in the Bronx (after stops in Texas, Anaheim and Atlanta). Then he completely broke down.
“I gave you everything I had,” he said, taking a long pause as the tears overwhelmed him.
“It wasn’t always enough,” he said before another long pause. “But I tried my best. I’m proud to have a World Series ring with the Yankees. It’s something I’ll never forget”
More cynical Yankees fans might list off all the times Teixeira didn’t live up to his $180 million contract. Others will justify Teixeira’s huge contract by the 2009 World Series he helped the team win.
Either way, those days are done now. The Yankees traded Carlos Beltran, Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller at the trade deadline to restock their farm system for a younger, potentially more successful future. A-Rod won’t be around too much longer — perhaps even shorter than his contract says, if you believe some reports. And C.C. Sabathia’s days in pinstripes are numbered too. He has a $25 million vesting option for 2017 if he doesn’t end this season on the disabled list, but that’s it.
The Yankees are changing. And Teixeira’s smart enough to know that unless he announced his retirement plans in advance, he’d face plenty of questions about his future.
“We’re a team in transition. Everybody knows that. I didn’t want to be distraction,” Teixeira said. “I didn’t want to lie to you guys. I didn’t want to lie to anyone.”
Now he just wants to play out the season, end his career in a Yankees uniform, go home to his family — and stay there a while. But first:
“I want to enjoy every last at-bat,” he said. “Every last game.”
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