Cliff Lee

Cliff Lee:So. Reports indicate that the Yankees have offered Cliff Lee a 6 year deal worth $140-150 million. Brian Cashman has confirmed an offer has been made, but gave no details about terms. Discussions are expected to continue after the Winter Meetings (which end tomorrow), but it sounds like this situation will resolve itself in the next week to ten days.

We are at what we can colloquially call nut-cutting time. The Rangers have made it clear they want Lee back, and seemingly are willing to do at least $20 million per year. They supposedly don't want to go more than four years, but are willing to go five years.

I think the Rangers had to come into this knowing that, to sign Lee, it was probably going to take a six year deal, and you just had to hope the Yankees weren't willing to go seven years. I also think the Rangers had to come into this knowing that C.C. Sabathia got $23 million per year from the Yankees, and that Lee and his agent were probably going to use that as their benchmark for annual salary....Read More