The deal will directly impact the Red Sox in two ways. The first being a short-term effect and the other being one that could surface a bit further down the road. Three months down the road, to be exact.
October. The playoffs.
Initially, what this reported trade does is position two rivals separated by five games but with identical glaring issues in the bullpen on dissimilar landscapes as they pursue relievers at the deadline.
In obtaining Lee — who leads the American League with five complete games, two more than the Sox have as a team — the Yankees add an innings-eater who will enable them to skip Joba Chamberlain and his 4.95 ERA and a slew of other relievers who have struggled this year, and go directly to all-world closer Mariano Rivera.
The Bronx Bombers have already taken this approach with CC Sabathia, like Lee, a lefty and one-time Cleveland Indian who has gobbled up the bridge to Rivera by working eight innings in three of his last four starts and 7 2/3 in the other.
A struggling bullpen is less of an issue if you don’t need to use it.
Of course, there is always the notion that keeping starters fresh has its benefits down the road. Now rich with starting pitching, New York also has a bevy of options if and when it chooses to decrease the workload of Sabathia, Lee and Andy Pettitte by bringing in reinforcements to the pen.
Phil Hughes, who was electric as a set-up man during the Yanks’ 2009 title run but has hit some bumps of late in an otherwise All-Star campaign as a starter, can join Chamberlain in the late innings. Or, someone like Javier Vazquez could be shipped for a quality reliever and perhaps another piece, such as a bat off the bench.
Vazquez has been rumored to be a chip in the deal and is only signed for one year, making him marketable to a club that could use a middle-of-the-rotation veteran.
The Sox, on the other hand, are hamstrung in this regard. With 40 percent of their rotation on the DL there is no easy way to move a back-end starter to the bullpen. And even if they did have a healthy Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz back in the fold and trading some pitching depth became an option, they have relatively immovable end-of the rotation pitchers in Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has a no-trade clause, and Tim Wakefield.
In addition, with the club suffering through so many injuries, some potential trade chips that otherwise would have been providing depth at the minor league level have become everyday players out of necessity.
This is another way injuries can impact a team; there simply aren’t as many movable parts. The Yankees, by getting Lee, would have plenty and may get a phone call before Boston does by a team looking to unload a reliever.
Another repercussion of a potential Lee deal would occur if and when both clubs navigate their way to the postseason. The Sox and Yanks could only meet in the ALCS, and in a seven-game series, it so often comes down to pitching depth.
When the teams last met in such a scenario in 2004, Boston had a better, deeper staff and the superior bullpen, Rivera notwithstanding. It was this fleet of hurlers, throwing opposite tired arms like Tom Gordon, Paul Quantrill, Kevin Brown and Vazquez, that held the Yankees to 13 runs in 44 innings over that amazing four-game winning streak that sealed it for the Sox.
We all saw what Lee did for the Philadelphia Phillies last October, going 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA in five postseason starts. Such a presence alongside Sabathia, Pettitte and a presumably improved New York bullpen anchored by The Best There Ever Was would make such four-game runs difficult to come by.
The Red Sox have enough in-house issues to not concern themselves with every rumor out there. But the Lee deal, if and when it occurs, would affect them. It would affect them up to and on July 31, when the trading period ends. It would potentially affect them in October, when the postseason begins. And, because Lee is simply that good, it may affect them every day in between.
