Orioles falling behind?

Buster Olney reported that the likelihood of free agent 1B Mark Teixeira signing with the Baltimore Orioles is slim, unless the O's increase their offer. He says the other teams pursuing Teixeira "have gone beyond Baltimore's proposal for the slugging first baseman."

According to Olney's column, the Orioles offer is believed to be for 7 years and $150 million. The Nationals' offer is reportedly 8 years for $160 million. Olney starts his column with the following sentence: "Unless free agent Mark Teixeira is willing to give the Orioles a major hometown discount, it does not appear he will be playing in Baltimore."

What? Taking the offer from the Orioles instead of the Nationals (or any other team - Red Sox, Angels, etc. - with a similar 8 year deal) is not giving Baltimore a "major hometown discount". As long as Teixeira is worth $10 million dollars seven years from now, it's the same amount of money. And, because he's only 28 and plays 1B, his value is likely to remain high into his late 30's. In all likelihood, he'd actually be better off financially (in the short term and the long term) taking $150 over 7 ($21.4 million per year) instead of $160 over 8 ($20 million per year).