How Much Money Did Mark Teixeira Make Playing Baseball and What Is His Net Worth?
Among Major League Baseball fans, there’s no middle ground when it comes to the New York Yankees. If you’re a fan of the Bronx Bombers, great; if you aren’t, they’re the Evil Empire, unafraid of shelling out truckloads of cash to sign any star they want. In 2009, first baseman Mark Teixeira became one of those big-money acquisitions.
Teixeira only helped the Yankees claim one World Series title, but he won’t be complaining about his time in the Bronx. The former first baseman made hundreds of millions while playing baseball, building up a massive net worth.
Mark Teixeira’s road to Major League Baseball
By the time he graduated high school, Mark Teixeira’s talent was already apparent. The Boston Red Sox wanted to work out a deal with the teenager, but tried to play hardball before draft day; consequently, Tex headed to Georgia Tech instead of joining the professional ranks.
While that move might not have brought an immediate payday, it paid off massively in the long run. With the Hornets, Teixeira blossomed into a legitimate star; he took home National Player of the Year honors in 2000 and batted .409 with a .712 slugging percentage during his time in college.
On the back of that success, Teixeira tried his luck in the draft again. This time, there weren’t any issues. The Texas Rangers snapped him up with the fifth overall pick and inked him to a professional contract.
Teixeira spent one season in the minors before making the big club out of spring training in 2003. Five years after turning down the Boston Red Sox, he was finally a major leaguer.
Becoming a big-money MLB star
Despite only spending one season in the minors, Mark Teixeira took to Major League Baseball with relative ease. He hit .256 with 21 home runs and 84 as a rookie; by his third season in the league, he batted .301, belted 41 home runs, and earned both a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger award. Despite that talent, however, the first baseman’s time in Texas was running out.
During the 2007 season, the Rangers shipped Teixeira to the Atlanta Braves. He would play out the rest of that campaign and sign a one-year extension but was traded again before that contract ran out. The first baseman joined the Los Angeles Angels for the rest of the 2008 campaign; when that deal expired, he finally hit free agency and took control of his own destiny.
That destiny took him to New York, where Teixeira signed a massive deal with the New York Yankees. While he would win a World Series ring during his first year with the club, Tex’s time in New York was somewhat of a mixed bag; for all of his offensive talent, he struggled to stay healthy during his time in the Bronx.
At the end of the 2016 campaign, Teixeira finally called it a career. He spent 14 seasons in the majors, batting .268 with 409 home runs and 1,298 RBIs; he also won one World Series title, five Gold Gloves, and three Silver Sluggers.
Mark Teixeira made more than $200 million playing baseball
While Mark Teixeira didn’t appreciate the Boston Red Sox’s negotiation tactics during the early days of his career, the first baseman got the last laugh. Not only did he turn into a legitimate professional ballplayer, but he made plenty of money doing so.
During his career, Teixeira took home $217 million in salary. Most of that money came from the New York Yankees; the Bronx Bombers inked the first baseman to an 8-year deal worth $180 million in 2008. He earned a little over $21 million in Texas and $12.5 million from the season split between Atlanta and Anaheim.
That playing salary, combined with his ESPN work, has helped Teixeira build up an estimated net worth of $75 million. That’s not a bad haul for less than 20 years of work.
