T.R. Sullivan has some blog notes up this morning, and includes this comment:
If Joaquin Arias doesn't hurt his shoulder two years ago, the guess here is Elvis Andrus would still be with the Braves.
Here's the thing...when Arias hurt his shoulder, he was coming off a bad year in AAA in 2006. If he bounces back and has a solid first half of 2007, he might have been more of a factor going forward, but I doubt that keeps the Rangers from picking up the four years younger Andrus, who was in high-A at the time the Rangers made that trade.
Now, it may be that Arias's presence would have prompted the move of Young to third base the previous offseason, and might have made the Rangers more willing to look at dealing Andrus for pitching help at some point in the past year. But I don't think the Rangers pass on Andrus in the Teixeira trade because of Arias.
That said, Arias is garnering some notice, and Sullivan is pretty clearly on the Arias bandwagon right now. If Arias shows that his shoulder is healthy and that he can handle the throws from deep in the hole, I have to wonder if there isn't going to be some discussion about Andrus starting the season in AAA and Arias, rather than Vizquel, being the starting shortstop.