By now you've probably heard at least a little bit about the Cliff Lee negotiations over the last 24 hours. The Yankees made a six-year offer, then the Rangers asked Lee's agent to let them know what it would take to get Cliff back. The agent declined, saying the Rangers had to make an offer like everybody else, and meanwhile the Yankees put an additional seven-year offer out there, just for good measure. In fact, it's been reported that the Yankees have separate deals for five, six, and seven years with different average annual values for Lee to pick from.
The Rangers sent CEO Chuck Greenberg, part-owner Ray Davis, and assistant GM Thad Levine (the guy in charge of hammering out contracts) to personally visit Lee, his wife, and his agent tonight. No terms were disclosed, but reports are that Lee has a "menu" of offers to choose from to come back to the Rangers, too. No doubt that the Rangers are throwing every perk they can think of at him, even if they can't quite match up to the dollars or years the Yankees can afford to offer.
It's all on the table, and up to Lee and his family to decide now. Expect an announcement in the next 72 hours.
As a side note, when I started this blog I wanted it to be mostly about reaction and reflection, but as a necessity to inform some of my readers what we are talking about, much of my time is also spent reporting (or more truthfully, passing along reports I read and hear). For this time of year, that balance is tilted more to the reporting side, but my goal is to get it back over to the reaction side more frequently in the near future. The problem lately is that there has just hasn't been much to reflect on or react to, other than rumors I needed to share in the first place. I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not trying to be another Rangers news site, and I'll get back to more analysis and personal thoughts when the time comes for that, which should kick off with the Lee decision this weekend. That should also open up a chain reaction of other Rangers moves, whether we get Lee or not, and I'll have my thoughts on those, too.
Stay tuned, this is about to get pretty awesome or quite disappointing.
I can't take the suspense!!!
ReplyDeleteAs I read on a friends FB post from a friend of his: "I'd like to personally thank all of the people in the world who buy all of the Yankee hats and shirts...you are who's allowing the Yankee's to once again try to buy a championship"....Crazy times....
ReplyDeleteI'd be shocked if he passes up a 7 year deal from the Yankees for a 6 year deal from Texas. I predict that he signs the CC Sabathia contract: 7 years, 161 million.
ReplyDelete