T.R.’s Memoirs: Mark Teixeira was the voice of a Texas Rangers youth movement that never met expectations

(AP photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Editor’s note: T.R. Sullivan covered the Texas Rangers over 32 years for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and MLB.com and is sharing his “memoirs” with this newsletter. In this installment, T.R. looks back on the Rangers career of first baseman Mark Teixeira and his impact — good and bad — on the franchise. He is the best position player ever drafted by the Rangers, but his place club history is unique to say the least.

In 1996, Rafael Palmeiro hit .289 with 39 home runs, 142 RBIs and a .546 slugging percentage for the Orioles. He was 31 years old.

In 2011, Mark Teixeira hit .248 with 39 home runs, 111 RBIs and a .494 slugging percentage for the Yankees. He was 31 years old. At that point, Teixeira had played in 1,374 games in his career and Palmeiro had played in 1,462. Palmeiro also had 270 more at-bats.

At that point, Teixeira had been more the productive player. His slash line was .281/.373/.532. That comes out to a .904 OPS with 314 home runs and 1,017 RBIs.

By comparison, Palmeiro was sitting with a slash line of 298/.367/.498. His OPS was .865 and he had 233 home runs and 848 RBIs. Defensively, they were both multi-Gold Glove winners.

Most people know what happened after each player turned 31.