Christmas comes early for Mark Teixeira and the Yankees

According to SI.com Mark Texiera has signed an 8 year 180 million dollar deal with the New York Yankees. Once again the Yankees have outbid the Red Sox for a free agent. With a new stadium and the revenue that the luxury seating already largely sold the Yankees have a seemingly endless stream of revenue. New York who has not won a World Series since 2000 is on the hook for 27 million dollars in luxury tax from last year's team payroll. Despite this, the Yanks payroll had already been trimmed by 82 million dollars with the retirement of Mike Mussina and free agency of Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano, and Bobby Abreu. There still appears to be 15-20 million still available if they spend to the same level this year even after the signings ofNick Swisher, C.C. Sabathia 23 million/yr and A.J. Burnett 18.5 million/yr. Manny Ramirez appears to have few teams with either the resources or inclination to sign him which makes the Yankees and Dodgers the likely landing spots. 

So what type of impact will his signing have on the Yanks offense? Well according to baseball-reference.com his runs created figure was 134 runs last year which is .83/game over 162 games. His offense is replacing that of Giambi who was 94 RC's last year a net improvement of 40 RC's or a quarter of a run a game. Last year the Yankees were far from the Bronx bombers of the past averaging just 4.87 runs/game 7th in the American League. If they improve to 5.12 per game with the addition of Texiera they would've been 3rd last year behind Texas and Boston. Using the most basic version of Bill James pythagorian won lost projections the Yankees would have won 91 1/2 games last year...let's round it to 92 games, he is good with the glove by the way, still 5 games behind Tampa's 97 wins last year. The offensive wild card is Nick Swisher who was 37 RC less than Abreu last year which could offset Teixeira's contribution somewhat if he doesn't bounce back. 

Looking at the pitching acquisitions, Darrell Rasner and Sidney Ponson combined for a 5.59 ERA and just over 193 IP last year. Burnett should save the Yankees about 20 runs and Sabathia another 18-20 runs over what Mussina did. Making the adjustments, thank you Mr. Pythagoris, that brings the Yankees to about 96 games which puts them square between the 97 wins the Rays and 95 wins garnered by the Red Sox last year. So the deals pull them at least even if not making them the prohibitive favorites in the AL East.