But scouts who watched the Atlanta Braves beat the Yankees 3-1 yesterday believe the Yankees could target Kansas City's Mark Teahen.
The 27-year-old hit .255 with 15 homers and 59 RBI for the Royals last season. A third baseman, he has played several different positions for the Royals.
With Alex Gordon at third base and a glut of outfielders on the roster, Teahen will be used off the bench by Kansas City unless he succeeds in winning a spot at second base.
Teahen is signed to a reasonable $3.57 million contract for 2009.
He also said that Bobby Crosby is a possibility, and that since he's lost his job to Orlando Cabrera he's asked to be traded.
I don't like the idea of trading for Crosby for several reason. He's injury-prone, he really hasn't been very good since his first two seasons, and he's never played third. Oh, and Billy Beane always asks for way too much in return for his players.
As far Teahen he's a bit more appealing, but there are some reasons to stay away from him too.
On the plus side, he's only 27, he's versatile, and he seems to be durable (144 and 149 games played in the last two seasons).
On the other hand, at a time when he should be getting better he's gotten worse. Over the past three seasons his numbers have gotten progressively worse, going from .290/.357/.517 in 2006 to .285/.353/.410 in 2007, to .255/.313/.402 last year. And check this out from ESPN's 2009 Fantasy Outlook:
Both his power and speed are on the decline, and that's a scary thing to see in a 27-year old who should be on the upswing. We don't even recognize this Teahen who in 2006 looked to be turning into a solid 20-15 contributor who would throw in the occasional .300 season at the plate. This could be the last season Teahen has any fantasy value if he doesn't stop driving the ball into the ground every other at-bat and we're skeptical he'll even think to try.Not good.
But again, he's just 27, so there is always the chance that he can turn things around. Maybe a change of scenery and playing for a contender would be good for him.
Honestly, I just hope A-Rod can either play through the injury, or he and the Yankees chose option no. three and that can get him healthy enough to play.
5 Comments:
While Teahen probably should be getting better at that age, I think it's more likely to assume that he's just an average ball player who had one fluke year at the age of 24:
Year/Age: OPS+
2005/23: 82
2006/24: 122
2007/25: 98
2008/26: 91
Assuming 06 was flukey good, 08 could have been similarly flukey bad and he's going to be a year-in-year-out .280+ hitter with 15-20 HRs. I'd expect him to bounce back a bit in 09, probably around a 100 OPS+.
He's probably got a decent future as a utility man, fill-in guy, or starter on a bad team.
It wouldn't be the worst trade in the world if we could get him for cheap, but if Alex ends up only being gone for a few weeks (if he takes "option 3"), then I wouldn't even bother.
I don't like the idea of bringing Teahen in here. If A-Rod takes the 3rd option and haves a small procedure, we can live with Cody Ransom manning third for 4 weeks.
What if this is all a distraction from the cyst issue and just like Bo Jackson's body broke down from steroids and Giambi was never the same player again after his cyst issues, the best we may see out of Arod in the future is 280, 25, 85 rbi if he comes back at all?
We should just stick with the guys we have.
It looks like this won't be an issue anyway. A-Rod with have arthroscopic and be out 6-9 weeks. Story above.
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