We jest, of course. Lee is still 100 percent a member of the Texas Rangers, who are a game away from advancing to the American League Championship Series. However, the number of onlookers who believe that the star lefty will join the Yankees in a major signing this offseason seems to be growing by the day.
With each quality effort (his seven innings of one-run ball in Game 1 of the ALDS on Wednesday being the latest), Lee solidifies his status as a guy who will be affordable to a scant few teams, New York obviously at the top of the list. If and when he beats the Yankees in three games of the ALCS and that value reaches stratospheric levels, the Steinbrenners may have only one course of action to satisfy the fan base. If you can’t beat him and you’re the only one who can afford him, then go get him.
It’s not as if New York hasn’t tried. It was all but assured a deal with Seattle for Lee in July, a trade involving high-end Yankees prospects which fell through when Texas swooped in at the 11th hour with a package apparently more attractive to the Mariners.
That proposed trade came at a time when there were cracks in the Yankees’ rotation, but they were small ones compared to the size of those that will exist when the season ends. The club has just three proven starters under contract for 2011, the extremely reliable CC Sabathia for $24.3 million, the extremely unreliable A.J. Burnett for $16.5 and young right-hander Phil Hughes.
Therefore, it becomes more than just a case of having the resources to land a prize like Lee and satisfy some fans. The Yankees could be in desperate need of another starter or even two off the free agent market, and there is almost no reason to doubt that they will go hard after Lee.
So where does that leave the Red Sox? When they inked John Lackey to a long-term deal last offseason and then gave Josh Beckett four more years early in 2010, it was presumed that having a full rotation locked up for several seasons put the Sox at the head of the pack when it came to pitching stability. All five of their starters are under team control through 2012, when Daisuke Matsuzaka becomes eligible for free agency.
Such stability would make most teams jealous, but it could also leave the club hamstrung when it plays itself against the Yanks.
Often when big-name free agents hit the market New York and Boston, whose collective payroll in 2010 was over $150 million more than the rest of the division combined, go toe-to-toe, at least in the rumor mill. That likely won’t be the case with Lee.
While Boston cannot be counted out in such a pursuit, it may only be in order to drive up the price. Lee figures to get Sabathia-like money. The big fella was signed by the Yanks for seven years and $161 million before last year, part of a New York spending spree that also netted the club A.J. Burnett and allowed them to re-sign Andy Pettitte. The trio made all of the team’s starts in a successful World Series run.
Unless there is an unlikely trade involving Matsuzaka, Boston may have too many potential moving parts on its roster outside of the stable starting rotation to devote its time and money to Lee. That leaves the Red Sox largely observers as the best pitcher to hit the market in years heads, in all likelihood, to their hated rivals in New York.
At least he’ll be coming to town in April.
