Dave Sessions is reporting that, according to Tom Hicks, the Rangers offered Mark Teixeira an 8 year, $140 million contract extension, and that Teixeira turned them down.
If this is true, and it was a legit $140 million -- not a deferred money deal that was more like $100 million in today's dollars -- then that was a very solid offer, and if that got rejected and wasn't even enough to get Teixeira negotiating, the Rangers didn't have much choice but to deal him.