Revisiting the Mark Teixeira and Atlanta Braves trade
By James Kunkle
Going back almost 13 years here, but let’s revisit July 31st, 2007 and the Atlanta Braves sit at 55-51 and sit back 4.5 games of the National League East leading New York Mets.
Obviously the Atlanta Braves knew they had to make a splash at the trade deadline to hopefully close up the gap and take over the lead in the division.
I remember the headline on ESPN as it was announced the Atlanta Braves had reached a deal with the Texas Rangers to acquire both Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay.
The headline read “BRAVE NEW WORLD.” Yes, that saying has probably been manipulated thousands of times when speaking about the Atlanta Braves, but none-the-less, that’s what it read.
Yes, I found out about this trade from espn.com. Remember this was before Twitter or mlbtraderumors.com exploded for us baseball enthusiasts.
So when all was said and done, the Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves pulled off a trade that went like this.
The Atlanta Braves received Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay while the Rangers were able to land the following five prospects from the Atlanta Braves organization.
Some would still call this an overpay still, and some did then as well too. As for me, I think it might have been an overpay, but I think it’s important to remember that Teixeira had a year and a half left on his deal, and despite the fact he had reportedly just turned down an 8 year $140 million deal, surely the Atlanta Braves felt they had a leg up simply by the fact that Mark Teixeira was coming home in a sense since. He played his collegiate ball at Georgia Tech just down the street from then Turner Field.
Obviously that did not work out for the Atlanta Braves, but that is not going to stop us from examining the deal from broader perspective from all said involved.