SF Gate: A’s philosophy looks at mileage, not years (Tejada)

Are the A’s still eying Milledg...oh.

In other words, Tejada’s age wasn’t a big deal to the A’s, except possibly when they signed him in 1993 as a teen out of the Dominican. He was much more signable at 17 than 19.

As to letting Tejada leave as a free agent, general manager Billy Beane said, “For us, losing players is not a function of age, but a function of the size of contract.”

The A’s front office had a good relationship with Tejada, and nobody in the organization liked how ESPN reporter Tom Farrey presented a copy of Tejada’s birth certificate to him on camera.

“I don’t know what it’s like to live in poverty in the Dominican,” Schott said. “If someone wants to play baseball so badly and it’s your ticket out, and it’s your one dream, you’ll do what a lot of these kids do. Either way, I always thought highly of Miggy.”