Mark Teixeira was the embodiment of everything wrong with the Yankees at the end of last season. Too old, too expensive and too injury-prone, the first baseman seemed little more than a shell of the fearsome hitter who had averaged 37 home runs his first three seasons in New York.
Teixeira knew something had to change after the Yankees missed the playoffs and he finished the season hitting .214. Though many Yankees fans seemed to be writing him off, he believed if he could get healthy, he still had a lot of baseball left.
"I just felt terrible," Teixeira said.