FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -The Boston Red Sox tried very hard to sign Mark Teixeira.
They offered him about $170 million to be their first baseman for eight years. He could’ve add more punch to one of baseball’s best lineups. And he is an outstanding defensive player.
Mike Lowell couldn’t help but feel hurt – and not from his injured hip, which needed surgery to repair.
The third baseman who had taken less money to stay with Boston before last season would have been the odd man out if Teixeira had joined the Red Sox with first baseman Kevin Youkilis likely shifting to the position Lowell fielded so well.
“I don’t think you can be anything but hurt,” Lowell said Tuesday.
But two months after Lowell’s surgery, Teixeira ended up agreeing on Dec. 23 to sign with the New York Yankees.
Lowell’s hip and feelings are still healing.
me in and you put your uniform on and, as he gets healthy, that’ll go away.
“And some of that is my responsibility to help that go away. But I understand how he felt. He conveyed that to me at times and now you move on the best you can.”
Lowell was the extra player in a trade that brought pitcher Josh Beckett from Florida to Boston before the 2006 season. Lowell was the MVP of the 2007 World Series, then re-signed for $38.5 million over three years.
He could have gotten a longer, richer contract elsewhere. But he liked Boston and its passionate crowds – so different from the Marlins’ fans – and stayed for less.
“I had, I’d say, four legitimate options in years and dollars,” Lowell said. “I think I let go of some of that because of how much I enjoyed being in Boston, and then I think it’s only normal to feel let down a little bit because (Youkilis) was not going to be the one traded.”
Youkilis finished third in last year’s AL MVP voting. Lowell hit .274 in 113 games, had just one at-bat during the last two weeks of the regular season and went 0-for-8 in the postseason. Then he had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right hip and a bone spur on the femur.
He was a positive presence in the clubhouse, a thoughtful veteran and a good teammate who played in pain for much of the second half of last season.
nd Teixeira, the top prize of the free agent market.
“You compare his numbers to mine, he’s a superior offensive player. You can use the argument where you want to look at long term,” Lowell said. “I don’t have a problem with them going after Mark Teixeira, but not after one of your guys, you pledged three years to him.
“That’s where the two-way street has to go. That’s why I say that it’s a business. If they want you, they want you.”
Lowell, who turns 35 next Tuesday, averages 23 homers and 98 RBIs with a .279 batting average over 162 games. Teixeira, six years younger, averages 36 homers, 121 RBIs and .290 in 162 games.
Lowell didn’t check the internet daily to find the latest rumors. His agent and others shared their opinions with him of what Boston might do.
“I figured if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. I’m not sweating it,” he said. “I just envisioned a very awkward scene with me and (Youkilis) taking ground balls (at third) and I didn’t really want to go through that.”
Now the position is his, as soon as he recovers enough to play. He and Francona hope he can be ready by opening day.
Lowell has been hitting for about three weeks and throwing for a while. He’ll start taking ground balls soon, but the biggest test will be when he starts running in spring training.
unning all the time,” he said. “But I’ve got to be able to function at the level that I want to be in all aspects of the game.”
Lowell said he is “very confident” he could be ready by opening day April 6 against defending American League champion Tampa Bay at Fenway Park.
Francona said Lowell will play in exhibition games but the Red Sox will monitor him closely to make sure he doesn’t regress physically.
Emotionally, Lowell will go about his business, as he always has.
“My emotional attachment to the guys on the team I don’t think ever changed. They have nothing to do with whether I’m traded or whether the team signs a certain person or not,” he said. “Those are the guys I see every day. I don’t see upper management every day. They are the businessmen. We’re the baseball players.”
Now, feeling “10 times better” than he did the last two months of last season and with the pursuit of Teixeira having failed, Lowell is happy to be starting his fourth spring training with Boston.
“I feel very excited to be here,” he said. “I’m kind of tired of being in the therapy room doing all that stuff. I want to be out on the baseball field.”
Out at third base for the Red Sox.
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