The Angels Offer Mark Teixeira $160 Million

So as things turn out, apparently there are teams in Major League Baseball not named the New York Yankees who are willing to spend money this winter. After letting Francisco Rodriguez leave to join the New York Mets and failing to sign CC Sabathia, the Angels find themselves with some money laying around, and they've decided to spend it on Mark Teixeira.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the Angels have made an offer to the free agent first baseman that would be the biggest contract in the history of the franchise, surpassing the $90 million deal they gave to Torii Hunter last season. While the numbers aren't confirmed, the deal is believed to be an offer of eight years and around $160 million.

Owner Arte Moreno flew from his Arizona home to Las Vegas on Tuesday and met personally with Scott Boras, the agent for Teixeira. Angels spokesman Tim Mead said he believed Moreno presented the offer to Boras at that time. Mead also said he did not know when the offer might expire.

The Angels, of course, are one of four teams that are known to be pursuing Teixeira. The Nationals offered him the same deal as the Angels, the Orioles have made an offer between $140 and $150 million over seven years, and nobody knows for sure what the Red Sox have offered.

I'm pretty sure the Red Sox offer will be the only one the Angels have to compete with because even though the Nationals and Orioles are close to Teixeira's home, neither have any realistic expectation of competing for a World Series next season, with or without Teixeira.

In other news, somewhere Manny Ramirez just punched something.