What to do with Tex?

Well, the chat log from Evan Grant’s recent chat on the DMN website is up, and in it, two answers talk about trading Mark Teixeira. There’s also the rumour site mlbtraderumors.com who picked up on the chat and offered their own speculation on the matter. Got me to wondering, what SHOULD we do with him?
Now I’m nowhere near ready to panic and give up on 2007 – that would be a Cowboys fan mentality to give up that quick. Sure, it hasn’t gone that well so far, but the basic construction of the team is sound, IMO, and I think we can, it just has to be done soon, where we have to decide if we are going to try and trade off pieces.
Ignoring the reality of trade pieces, and whatnot, if he wasn’t here, I would think Baltimore would be a great place for him to go. I think they’re still looking for that “face of the franchise” type of player that Cal Ripken was. Tejada is a great player, but I don’t think Orioles when I think of him – he’s still an “A”. If you’re a Rangers fan, you already know he’s from there, so I’m sure it would be a nice fit. Whether they can offer what we’d want in return, which I’m sure would be a major league ready starting pitcher, and a replacement for Tex (Markakis?). Problem is they don’t really have any active starters that excite me. But where else would he go? Anaheim? I doubt we’d trade him there unless we got John Lackey back (yeah, right – like that would happen), although I can see him going there as a free agent. Or worse, the Yankees. Ugh.
Anyway, I set up a poll here on the front page of my site asking what you think we should do with Teixeira this season. Please vote. Thanks. BTW, I voted for “sign him long term”, but I’m starting to feel that won’t happen. Two off seasons ago, he signed that two year deal to avoid arbitration with the idea that we’d work on a long term contract before this 2 year one is up. It’s almost up – I wonder if they meant that.