Sports Page Atlanta

At least that’s what SI columnist Jon Heyman thinks. In fact, Heyman feels that the Braves aren’t even one of the front runners to sign Mark Teixiera when the off-season bidding war starts.

Teixeira, who turned 28 last month, is no late bloomer. He’s averaged 34 home runs and 111 RBIs over his first five seasons. And yes, he is a Boras client, one that will follow his agent’s advice, play the field and hit the jackpot.

With the guts to wait for his payday (he turned down $140 million over eight years from the Rangers last summer before they traded him to the Braves) and the fortune of superb timing (three major-market teams should be looking for a first baseman), everyone agrees Teixeira is bound for big bucks even though he isn’t off to his biggest start. He has four homers, 18 RBIs and is batting .258 so far.

Take a look at which teams, Heyman feels, have the best odds of signing Mark Teixiera once he becomes a free agent for the 2009 season.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 8:10 am and is filed under Atlanta Braves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.