Market for Angels’ Teixeira is heating up

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Bad news for the Angels and their quest to retain free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira: According to the New York Times, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman traveled to Washington on Thursday to meet Teixeira and his agent, Scott Boras.

With their earlier acquisition of first baseman Nick Swisher from the Chicago White Sox, it was thought the Yankees wouldn’t make a play for Teixeira, thus eliminating a big-market suitor for the switch-hitting slugger who batted .358 with a .449 on-base percentage, 13 homers and 43 runs batted in for the Angels after his July 29 trade from Atlanta.

But with the Yankees still waiting for pitcher CC Sabathia to respond to their reported six-year, $140-million offer, it is clear Cashman has begun working on Plan B -- Teixeira -- if the highly coveted free-agent left-hander spurns their offer.

Any Yankees involvement in the Teixeira derby could drive up the price for Teixeira, perhaps not as high as the 10-year, $200-million deal Boras is seeking but well beyond the five or six years the Angels would prefer to offer to Teixeira.

Plus, if the Yankees get into a bidding war with the archrival Boston Red Sox, who are believed to have made an offer to Teixeira, the Angels would almost certainly have to go well beyond the range they were hoping to keep Teixeira.

The Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals are also very interested in Teixeira, who grew up in a Baltimore suburb, and negotiations are expected to heat up at the winter meetings in Las Vegas next week.

-- Mike DiGiovanna