Is Mark Teixeira a Hall of Famer?

Mark Teixeira's retirement announcement Friday afternoon didn't catch too many people off guard. His production tapered off over the past several years, culminating in what's been the worst season of his 14-year career.

The news spurred lots of talk about his place in the game's history. Teixeira's had a fascinating and often outstanding career despite injuries, and it raises the question: Is he a Hall of Famer? We broke down his resume to try to find an answer.

A top switch-hitter

One of Teixeira's major calling cards has been his work as a switch-hitter. Much of that stems from his performance in the power department, where 404 career homers put him among some of the elites in switch-hitting history.

(Statistics as of Aug. 5; courtesy Baseball-Reference)

Teixeira also holds a unique record among switch-hitters: He's homered from both sides of the plate in a single game 14 times, tied with Nick Swisher for the most in history (since 1916), according to Baseball Almanac. His career .872 OPS trails only Jones, Berkman, and Mantle, while his nine 30-homer seasons are tied with Mantle for the most ever by switch-hitters. Add in three Silver Sluggers, a second-place MVP finish in 2009, eight 100-plus RBI seasons, and five years of 100-plus runs scored, and you've got a well-rounded offensive machine who made pitchers sweat on the mound.

In other categories, however, Teixeira falls a little shy of the elite. His 1,838 hits rank 38th among switch-hitters, ahead of Rafael Furcal and behind someone named John Anderson, who last played in 1908. By Baseball-Reference's calculation of Wins Above Replacement, he's accumulated 52.2 WAR, 13th among switch-hitters - ahead of Berkman and even some Hall of Famers, including Red Schoendienst, but well behind the elite. The top 10 all have over 66 bWAR; all of them are either in Cooperstown already or are eligible and deserving candidates, save for the banned Pete Rose.

Premier defender

Surprisingly, Teixeira didn't start out as a first baseman, playing his first professional season of 2002 at third. The Rangers moved him across the diamond as a rookie in 2003, and that's when Teixeira began making his name as one of the finest defensive first basemen ever.

His five Gold Gloves may seem low, but a combination of injuries and two midseason trades that sent him from the AL to the NL and back again in consecutive seasons may have denied him more awards. Regardless, he's one of just eight men with five or more Gold Gloves at first base.

It's hard to measure defensive ability by statistics, especially at first base where fielders get more chances than anywhere else. By the Fangraphs metric Defensive Runs Saved, Teixeira's mark of 104 is second only to Albert Pujols. Impressive, certainly, but incomplete, as data isn't available for the likes of Hernandez, widely regarded as the greatest fielding first baseman. However, watch Teixeira's footwork while playing the position when scooping a quick grounder out of the dirt or saving a bad throw, and you'll witness his brilliance.

Does it all add up to Cooperstown?

There's no question that Teixeira will go down as one of the greats at his position. Switch-hitting and powerful first basemen with tremendous fielding ability don't come along very often.

For Cooperstown, Jay Jaffe's JAWS metric (explained here) is not in his corner - a score of 37.9 at his peak, below the average HOF first baseman of 42.5 - so Teixeira's case for immortality probably relies on looking past his lower raw numbers. To do that, Hall of Fame voters - the majority of whom tend to lean on traditional statistics - must see beyond the fact he missed 500 homers and 2,000 hits as a first baseman, which won't be easy considering the emphasis placed on the bat at his position. Just ask Hernandez, who couldn't garner over 10 percent as a candidate despite a tremendous resume as a hitter and all-time great fielder at first - likely due to his low home-run total.

Ultimately, Teixeira was an impressive player, but a combination of injuries and a steep decline will likely cost him a spot in Cooperstown. Without the missed time, perhaps he would have made a push for the big round numbers to help his case over the last few seasons, or even by hanging around in the years to come. Sadly, we'll never get that answer.

Being part of the unofficial "Hall of very good" is nothing to mope about, though, since he'll still go down as one of the better players at his position and a tremendous switch-hitting talent who left an indelible mark on the game, bronze plaque or not. Anyone who ever watched Teixeira whip to his left to snag a hot grounder or smoothly crush a pitch deep into the New York night would be hard-pressed to disagree.