Surprisingly little has been made of Mark Teixeira facing his old team in the ALCS, perhaps because he had stints with the Braves and Angels in between going from the Rangers to the Yankees.
Selected by Texas with the fifth overall pick in the 2001 draft, Teixeira hit .283/.368/.533 with 153 homers and 499 RBIs in 693 games for the Rangers. In the middle of his fifth season in Texas he reportedly turned down an eight-year, $140 million extension offer, at which point the Rangers traded Teixeira to the Braves on July 31, 2007 for a five-prospect package that included Neftali Feliz, Elvis Andrus, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Matt Harrison, and Beau Jones.
At the time Saltalamacchia was viewed as the centerpiece of the Rangers’ haul, while Feliz and Andrus were high-upside teenagers at Single-A. Four years later Feliz is one of the best closers in baseball and may win the Rookie of the Year award, Andrus is an elite defensive shortstop and the Rangers’ leadoff man ... and Saltalamacchia is trying to resurrect his injury wrecked career with the Red Sox.
Teixeira played well for the Braves, hitting .295/.395/.548 with 37 homers and 134 RBIs in 157 games spread over 1.5 seasons before they traded him to the Angels in July of 2008 for Casey Kotchman and Steve Marek. He played 54 games for the Angels, batting .358/.449/.632 with 13 homers and 43 RBIs, and then hit the open market as a free agent and signed a $180 million deal with the Yankees.