A TEIXEIRA RESURGENCE? MAYBE...

It’s very early but we have seen some positive signs from the Yankees. A FEW positive signs, but it’s better than none, right? Alex Rodriguez has found his stroke early on, Andrew Miller has performed well in the closer role and Stephen Drew and Chase Headley have each had a few big hits. But Mark Teixeira has shown a bit of a resurgence in his power numbers in the early going and hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.

During the World Baseball Classic in March of 2013, Teixeira injured his wrist and it eventually required surgery. Sluggers David Ortiz and Jose Bautista both battled similar injuries and it took a while for them to get back to their old form. Tex had a rough year in 2014 hitting just .216 over 123 games. But I’m (we’re) hoping that this year is when Tex turns it back around and propels the Yankees sluggish offense to the playoffs.

Here on BYB, we’ve been very critical of Teixeira, with just reasoning. He always says he is a notoriously slow starter, the shifts kills him, yada yada yada. So far on the young season, Tex seems to have found his stroke some hitting three home runs to go along with three doubles over the Yankees first nine contests. He’s scored six runs, added five RBI and has a 1.016 OPS. In 2014 he had just a .711 OPS.

When the Yankees signed Mark, he was a ‘sure fire bet’ based on his past performances and overall health history. As players get older, health issues sure creep up more and performances typically go down. That’s why I hate long-term contracts for aging stars. Don’t get me going on that topic as I’ve covered it on multiple occasions over the past few months!

As of now, all the Yankees want and need is for Tex to play solid defense, stay relatively healthy and produce, say, 25 home runs along with 80+ RBI and hit above the .250 mark. I’d call that a victory after the past few seasons. Anything more than that is a huge bonus. Tex said his goal is 30 home runs and 100 RBI. We would all take that!!

With 150+ games left to play, I’m not 100% convinced Mark will achieve these numbers and some of you are probably rolling your eyes and calling me a moron and I get that. But I like what I’ve seen so far. He had a big game-tying home run to tie the game in the 16th inning of the Yankees 19 inning loss to the Red Sox. He got the Yankees offense rolling a couple times against the Orioles and although the Yankees lost both series, there was some life and Teixeira was part of it.

So what do you say Tex? Have yourself a year. Help get the Yankees back on the top of the AL East. The Yankees will need ALL 25 men on the roster, plus many more, to achieve that goal. But it’s only two weeks into the season, so a man can hope that is the year that Mark Teixeira has himself a resurgence!


 
Dan Lucia
BYB Writer
Twitter: @DManLucia






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