The Cliff Lee sweepstakes is expected to ultimately be a two-horse race between Texas and New York, but that doesn't mean that five other teams haven't already tried to crash the party.
Free agency officially began on Sunday, and Lee's agent Darek Braunecker was apparently contacted by seven teams: New York, Texas, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, the Chicago Cubs, Washington and Anaheim, according to the New York Daily News.
The 32-year-old Lee is expected to receive a deal in the six-years, $23 million range.
Of the aforementioned teams, it is hard to believe that Milwaukee would be able to afford such a price, but while the Yankees clearly have a money advantage over everybody else, each of the other teams involved is far from impoverished. Lee has stated that he and his family feel at home in Texas, and that they enjoy its proximity to Arkansas, where they reside.
Lee, known for his playoff performances, likely would want to play for a team that will be making October appearances — so Washington and Chicago probably won't be in the picture, but Philadelphia and Anaheim would make sense.
Lee went to the World Series with the Phillies just one year ago, and with Roy Oswalt and Roy Halladay now on the team, the Phillies could hypothetically assemble a Halladay-Lee-Cole Hamels-Oswalt rotation that would be a shoe-in for best in the league, perhaps the best since Atlanta's in the early 1990s.
New York, though, still has to be considered the favorite, simply because of their purchasing power.
Still, Braunecker has not yet returned the Yankees' call.
Jorge Posada, however, is already talking like it's a done deal.
"He's going to make our team better," he said.
