Kuzul

In the middle of the night, while many East Coast baseball fans were sleeping, possibly dreaming of the glorious news that the Yankees had finalized a deal to bring Cliff Lee to the Bronx, the unthinkable occurred: somehow, the Yankees didn’t get their man.

With the shocking revelation that the Philadelphia Phillies had undercut both the Yankees and the Texas Rangers in a surprise move to bring Lee back to the City of Brotherly Love, many Yankee fans are cursing Lee, Brian Cashman, Ruben Amaro Jr., and anyone else who can be blamed for this calamity.

Surely, someone must be to blame. This was preordained, written in the stars; Lee was already almost a Yankee once. He was trying to decide where to live in New York before being suddenly traded to the Rangers in July.

With his former Cleveland rotation mate, CC Sabathia, already in the Bronx fold, Lee surely would follow the money trail and join up with his old buddy to lead the Yankees to multiple World Series titles over the next seven years.

Wait….what? Are you kidding?

Philadelphia, the team that traded Lee away so that they could obtain Roy Halladay, signed Cliff Lee to a reported five year, $100 million deal? He left $50 million on the negotiating table?

Does that even possibly make sense? What about the hastily added seventh year? That was supposed to seal the deal after Boston created significant waves by signing Carl Crawford and trading for Adrian Gonzalez.

The assumption floating around baseball for the last two years was that Lee was determined to cash in during his only free-agent extravaganza of his Major League career. Philly unloaded him because he would be nearly impossible to re-sign. Seattle gave up after only a few months. The Rangers enjoyed their time with him greatly, but seemed almost resigned to the fact that the Lee would be tempted by more years and more dollars to join the pinstriped party in the Bronx.

Suddenly, Philadelphia boasts a rotation that is terrifying in the short-term. With Lee joining Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, the Phillies suddenly have a potentially dominant foursome leading their starting staff. The window of opportunity may be small, since Lee will be 33 during the 2011 season, and both Halladay and Oswalt will turn 34 during the year, but the Phillies will take their chances for now.

The Yankees, having missed out on their most coveted free-agent target, as well as Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth, suddenly seem vulnerable.

Cliff Lee was the plan. Brian Cashman spoke of not being desperate, and of course the Yankees won 95 games last year and were only two wins from a World Series appearance. However, that was accomplished with a frayed and battered rotation, one that could have greatly benefited from the presence of Cliff Lee.

Cashman has spoken of Plan B’s and C’s, i.e. contingency plans, in case the unthinkable occurred, and someone outbid the Yankees for the player that they most desired. As outlandish as that seems, the Yankees must at least consider the possibility.

Well, hopefully they did, because that unthinkable scenario is now staring them directly in the face.

Boston has been strengthened significantly through their dealings at the winter meetings. Not wanting to admit it, the Yankees needed to land Lee to counter the dramatic moves of Theo and Co. A general uneasiness has crept up around New York in the wake of Boston’s maneuvering. Bringing Cliff Lee on board could surely help ease the tension.

But what now? Rumors have circulated around highly capable hurlers like Kansas City’s Zack Greinke and Tampa’s Matt Garza. Greinke, a year removed from an AL Cy Young Award, is incredibly gifted, but a previous anxiety disorder would seem to make him a long-shot to succeed in the Bronx. 

Garza, also very talented, happens to have a combustible personality of a different sort, and the likelihood of the Rays trading him within the division seems low. Carlos Zambrano? A headcase, though talented, could prove to be a disaster.

Is it possible that the Yankees may be forced to retool from within? Does Joba Chamberlain get one more opportunity to prove that he can start games for the Yankees? Ivan Nova impressed in short stints with the team last year, so could he be given a legitimate shot?

As crazy as it may sound right now, it may turn out to be a blessing in disguise that the Yankees were unable to lure Cliff Lee to the Bronx.

Sure, he likely would have been fantastic for the Yankees, for at least a few seasons. Over the last three seasons, he is among the very best hurlers in the game. His dramatic post-season performances have helped carve him a place in baseball history usually reserved for more illustrious names like Koufax and Gibson.

There is no doubting Cliff Lee’s ability or his recent track record.

However, has he done enough to feel comfortable committing a minimum of $20 million a year to him…for seven years?

Yes, he has been great. Yes, he has turned in splendid performances against the Yankees for various teams over the last few years. He would have undoubtedly strengthened the New York rotation considerably for the next few years.

But, seven years?

That’s where the Yankees may have just been saved from themselves. In what could be seen as a knee-jerk reaction to Boston’s marquee acquisitions, the Yankees were willing to move beyond their stated threshold of a six year offer to Lee. Almost immediately following the announcement of the Crawford deal, the Yankees let it be known that they were willing to go to a seventh year in order to entice the left-handed Lee to Yankee Stadium.

At that point, many around the league viewed Lee’s eventual unveiling as the newest Yankee as a foregone conclusion. Not many franchises possess the financial wherewithal to hand out bloated, overly long contracts like the Yankees can. The willingness to go the seventh year seemingly propelled the Bombers into the driver’s seat in the race to land Cliff Lee’s signature.

But something was amiss. The weekend passed, and there was no news from the Lee camp. Surely, the seven year offer was enough. Barring another surprise raid by the Nationals, the likelihood of another team outbidding the Yankees in this case seemed absurd. There wasn’t someone else willing to challenge the financial recklessness of the Yankees in the free agent market, was there?

Well, apparently that wouldn’t even be necessary. Despite reports of a seven year offer hovering in the $150 million range, Lee spurned the Yankees for a chance to return to Philadelphia, instead signing his name to a five year deal worth a guaranteed $120 million dollars. Additionally, the deal contains incentive clauses for a sixth year option.

Cliff Lee bucked conventional thought on the matter, shocking those who presumed he would simply agree to the richest deal. He may have left money on the table, but he went where he was comfortable, and who can argue with that?

As far as the Yankees are concerned, there is certainly an aura of failure surrounding the franchise right now, after watching their arch-nemesis in Boston make two stunning player acquisitions and failing to land their own premier off-season target. Of course, those who live to hate the Yankees will have a field day, reveling in the perceived failure of the “Evil Empire.”

While it may be terribly disappointing when viewed in the context of the short-term, the Yankees very well may have gotten lucky to lose out in the Lee sweepstakes.

In the limited history of pitchers who have signed contracts of seven years or more, such a bold move has rarely paid the expected dividends. Throughout the history of the game, such a long-term commitment to a hurler has only occurred seven times, with only Wayne Garland, Mike Torrez, Dave Stieb, Kevin Brown, Mike Hampton, Barry Zito and CC Sabathia inking deals of at least seven years. Aside from Sabathia’s thus far productive tenure with the Yankees, not a single other deal of that magnitude can be considered a success. Of course, we still have several years to gauge the overall value of the Zito and Sabathia deals, but prior to those the signing team has never completed one of these deals without significant regret.

Though Cliff Lee has been a stellar pitcher from 2008-2010, one has to remember that he will turn 32 during this upcoming season. By the time a potential 7 year deal would have concluded, he would have surpassed his 38th birthday.

Regardless of his current status as one of the game’s  greatest pitchers, one has to reasonably ask how many of those years would Cliff Lee be good enough to warrant in excess of $20 million per season?

Surely, it could be three years, possibly four, but beyond that, the future gets hazy.

If Lee had signed on with the Yankees, not only would they be tied to another mid-thirties pitcher making huge  money, but they remain committed to A.J. Burnett for another three years and around $50 million, CC for another five years, A-Rod through 2017 at almost $30 million per year, and Teixeira for another six years and $135 million.

Just a rough estimate tells you that if Lee were included, the Yankees would have approximately $116 million per season tied up in just six players for at least the next three years. Does that sound like a desirable position for a club to place itself in? That amount of money doesn’t even include the Jeter deal, Pettitte, Mo or Robinson Cano.

While many assume the Yankees have free reign to spend as much as they are willing, even they would have to balk at having that much money committed to only a handful of players. They have to have noticed that the “buy every top free agent possible” strategy has only yielded one championship in a decade. It has to be painfully obvious that a smaller market team just won the World Series with a rotation full of homegrown talent. That same team had their own massive free agent blunder sitting idly while the exciting young arms pitched their way to baseball’s promised land.

Of course, being the Yankees, they will probably now author a blockbuster trade to combat the improvements of their rivals, picking up yet another high-priced star to add to their already bloated salary ledger and continue the prevailing trend of the decade.

The Yankees may feel stunned, the mood lingering around New York may be that of a city spurned, disappointment following what many felt was a closed case.

This time though, while it may be difficult in the short term, the Yankees may have just been saved from themselves.

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Cliff Lee just shocked the baseball world by going back to the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Texas Rangers and New York Yankees were widely thought to have been the front-runners for his services, but they’re now left in the dark after his signing.

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Joe Blanton is not definitely on his way out of Philadelphia yet.

As NESN.com is reporting, a team source said “(I) don’t know where this is coming from,”

As Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal suggested via twitter, the Phillies might want to keep him as a backup plan: “Some with Phillies want to keep Blanton. 2 yrs left. Safety valve in event of injury or Oswalt exit after ’11. Payroll the issue.”

The Red Sox may have improved their lineup tremendously, by adding Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, but there remain some questions about their rotation. Josh Beckett is coming off an injury plagued 2010 and John Lackey had a disappointing season, so there is naturally some interest in enhancing the rotation, especially since Daisuke Matsuzaka has struggled with injury and inconsistency lately.

If the club can somehow move Matuzaka and his huge contract Blanton would be a great replacement. But if that doesn’t happen (and it’s unlikely that a team would want to pick up the $8.3 milliion contract of a play whose went 13-12 the past two seasons), Blanton might be headed elsewhere.

For more on the MLB offseason, see MLB Free Agents: The Latest on Cliff Lee, Adrian Beltre and Others

Joe Blanton might be the only member of the Philadelphia Phillies who wasn’t ecstatic to hear that the team signed free agent ace Cliff Lee.

Lee’s addition now gives the team two Cy Young winners, a former World Series MVP, and Roy Oswalt. Because he now seems expendable, some reports have Blanton being shipped to the Boston Red Sox.

But Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports suggested that the franchise might be leary about dealing away Blanton. He tweeted this morning “Some with Phillies want to keep Blanton. 2 yrs left. Safety valve in event of injury or Oswalt exit after ’11. Payroll the issue.”

Blanton is 30 and came to the Phillies in the middle of the 2008 season. In those two and a half seasons, he has posted a 4.38 ERA and a 25-14 record in 118 starts.

Blanton made $3 million last season so he was relatively cheap, but is scheduled to make $8.5 million each of the next two seasons before becoming a free agent in 2013.

For more on the MLB offseason, see MLB Free Agents: The Latest on Cliff Lee, Adrian Beltre and Others

The Philadelphia Phillies’ starting rotation is much too good to be compared to their contemporaries. After signing Cliff Lee to a five-year contract, the Phillies have four starting hurlers as good or better than the rest of the league’s aces. We need a more historical, less comparative context in which to measure their greatness.

How good is this corps, which now features Roy Halladay, Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt? All four are among the top 20 pitchers of the past three seasons, according to Wins Above Replacement. Halladay and Lee are the two best pitchers in the game over that stretch. Their prospective dominance far out-strips that of any rotation in the past decade, so we need to go farther back.

Where do the Phillies fall all time? How do they stack up against the best rotations ever? Who comes in atop the list? Read on for the top five starting rotations in baseball history.

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Cliff Lee Phillies marriage has Boston Red Sox fans giddy this Tuesday morning.

Obviously, the Yankees losing out on a front line starter is a big deal: anytime the Yankees lose anything Red Sox fans have to be happy.

But because the club’s biggest offseason acquisitions (outfielder Carl Crawford and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez) were both left handed bats, the Yankees missed out on having a great response to their AL East rival.

And if that wasn’t enough, there are now reports that the Red Sox are going to acquire Joe Blanton from Philadelphia. The Phillies now have Lee, 2010 NL Cy Young winner Roy Halladay, 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt, so they do not need to pay Blanton more than $3 million per season.

Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman, tweeted this morning “word now is, Philly has a deal in place with Boston for Blanton.”

On the other hand, Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal reponded via twitter, “Some with Phillies want to keep Blanton. 2 yrs left. Safety valve in event of injury or Oswalt exit after ’11. Payroll the issue.”

For more on the MLB offseason, see MLB Free Agents: The Latest on Cliff Lee, Adrian Beltre and Others

Cliff Lee agreed with the Philadelphia Phillies Monday night, leaving many people across the country to wake up to a piece of surprising news. Since when did the Yankees not get who they wanted? And when were the Phillies ever in the conversation?

The contract is said to be a five-year deal worth $120 million, $30 million less than he could have gotten from the Yankees. In all likelihood, Lee wanted to go back to a place where he felt like he’d be at home again. 

He wanted to rekindle the magic of his 2009 World Series run.

Lots of people are going to jump to hasty conclusions and claim that Lee makes the Phillies immediate World Series favorites this year and that it won’t even be close. 

While Lee gives the Phillies an incredible rotation, don’t be so quick to anoint them champions without even playing a game. 

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Zack Greinke trade rumors have kicked up a few notches over the last 12 hours after reports surfaced that prized free agent Cliff Lee signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Lee’s decision to sign with the Phillies over a larger offer from the New York Yankees and extreme interest from the Texas Rangers all but shocked the baseball world.

Lee joins Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels in what will be perhaps the top starting rotation in all of baseball.

Throughout the highly anticipated free agency process, Greinke has served as sort of a backup option to teams in the event they did not land Lee.

Given the fact that both the Yankees and Rangers, along with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, have lost out on Lee and other prized free agents, expect the interest in a trade for Greinke to only increase.

Prior to news of Lee’s deal with the Phillies, it was reported that the Yankees would be reluctant to go after the Kansas City Royals right-hander if they missed out on Lee. New York’s contingency plan in the event that it lost out on Lee has always been focused on beefing up the bullpen.

Of course, these reports surfaced prior to news of Lee signing and when the Yankees, who had reportedly offered Lee a seven-year, $148 million deal, were bound to land the free agent. One can only wonder if New York’s Plan B changes this morning with the confirmation of Lee’s five-year, $120 million deal with Philadelphia.

Late Monday night, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reported that the Kansas City Royals were “actively gauging” the trade market for Greinke. The Royals are reportedly looking for up-the-middle position players close to being ready for action in the big leagues. The report noted that the Yankees and Brewers were not among the best potential matches for a trade.

Other potential landing places for Greinke predicted in reports over the last few days include the Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

With Lee off the table, Greinke is perhaps the top pitcher available for teams interested. The Royals know well that when Greinke becomes a free agent at the end of the 2012 season, they’re unlikely to have the resources to retain him.

All of that said, I don’t think this will come down to the bigger market teams like the Yankees swooping in and picking the right-hander up. The Royals value prospects highly, and it’s going to take the right package for Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore to pull the trigger.

The deal Lee signed is bound to leave the MLB Players Union scratching its head. Lee left money and years on the table by signing with Philadelphia. Both New York and Texas had reportedly offered him more than the five-year, $120 million deal he inked with the Phillies.

When it comes time for his next payday—regardless of which team it will be with—Greinke’s contract will surely be impacted by the bargain deal Lee signed.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

We’ve all heard the same story since the World Series concluded.

Would Cliff Lee choose the money and sign with the Yankees, or would he stay in Texas, where he and his family felt comfortable? Nobody seemed certain about which way he was leaning, not even Lee himself.

After it was announced that there was a mystery team in the running for Lee, speculation ran rampant that it was Philadelphia, and sure enough it was.

Turning down both Texas and New York, Lee agreed to a five-year deal with the Phillies late on Monday night that sent everyone into utter shock.

A big swing and a miss for both the Yankees and Rangers, as neither team was able to haul in this offseason’s top free agent prize. Now with the Philadelphia rotation boasting Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, it’s going to be awfully tough for anyone to knock off the Fightin’ Phils.

While the Yankees can just throw money at the remaining free agents, what are the Rangers going to do? With no clear-cut contingency plan in mind, the team has found itself in a rather precarious position.

While this certainly isn’t the ideal scenario for most Texas fans, it is the one that makes the most sense.

Sign 3B Adrian Beltre

After pulverizing the American League with both his Gold Glove defense and extraordinary offensive output, Beltre looks primed for a big payday in free agency. Beltre would do very well in a lineup that would provide him ample protection, and he would be a big upgrade at the hot corner over the incumbent Young.

Trade 3B Michael Young

Young, who is said to have been on the trade block for quite some time now, looks like the most likely candidate to get shipped out. Not only would his departure free up the spot for Beltre, but if GM Jon Daniels chooses to trade him for some young minor league talent, it would also create more spending room to add yet another additional piece, which they’ll certainly need to do.

Sign SP Brandon Webb or SP Chien-Ming Wang to a one-year deal

They might not have the package to pull off a Zack Greinke deal, but how about taking a one-year roll of the dice on either of the two mentioned above? Wang would be the better fit, but it’s been rumored that Texas could be a potential landing spot for Webb for a long time now.

Regardless, the Rangers are going to have to begin moving aggressively if they hope to have a chance to move in on anyone with the free agent crop beginning to thin quickly.

Sign CL Rafael Soriano

All those dollars they were going to hand Cliff Lee have to go somewhere, right? The Rangers have said time and time again that if they were unable to re-sign Lee, they’d have to give serious thought to implementing Neftali Feliz into the starting rotation. Well, here’s the perfect opportunity.

With Rafael Soriano coming off one of the most dominant years for a closer in recent memory, he’d fit perfectly at the back end of the Texas bullpen, allowing Feliz to slide into the rotation. Without a bona fide No. 1 starter, the Rangers are going to have to explore all avenues to fill the gaping hole left by Lee’s left arm, and Feliz’s excitement, youth and energy are a great way to begin revamping the rotation once again.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

George Steinbrenner was more than a mere baseball mogul. For better or worse, his time at the top of the New York Yankees ladder changed the game forever. During the latter years of the Steinbrenner era, as the landscape became the free market free-for-all Steinbrenner so encouraged during the first two decades of free agency, the Yankees became a symbol, an empire that ruled baseball with an iron (golden) fist.

Steinbrenner died in July though, and the evidence has rapidly accumulated ever since: Without the Boss behind the big desk inside the team’s new palace, the empire is in an irrevocable decline. Free agent ace Cliff Lee made that official Monday night. In a stunning resolution to a nearly James-ean free agent drama that unfolded after dark on one of the shortest days of the year, Lee chose the Philadelphia Phillies’ five year, $100 million offer over monumentally more lucrative offers from both the Texas Rangers and the Yankees.

Of course, there is so much more to the story. Lee did not merely pass up $50 million more to pitch in Philadelphia rather than New York; he did so despite perhaps the Yankees’ most aggressive courtship of a free agent since Roger Clemens. Lee spurned the Yankees in a way that no one, while Steinbrenner still breathed, would have dared to spurn them. Steinbrenner, for all his faults as a short-sighted and short-tempered personnel manager, had a certain charisma when it came to luring in their truly important targets.

As recently as two winters ago, the team rather easily scooped up CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. The team simply did not miss when they really, truly committed themselves to a player. Steinbrenner was emperor, and he left no territory unconquered. Mere months after his death, their most prized target has rather easily defied conquest.

Meanwhile, as they always do when great empires begin to fall in on themselves, emboldened rivals have begun to directly attack the Yankees. The Red Sox, who never really displaced the Yankees as baseball’s unilateral power even during their mini-dynasty in the middle of the last decade, have so thoroughly beaten the Yankees this winter that, if the season began tomorrow, they would probably win the AL East by 10 games. They signed Carl Crawford, whom the Yankees had also briefly considered, and traded for Adrian Gonzalez.

With the Yankees missing out on Lee, the Red Sox may be better in every facet of the game next season: offense, pitching and defense. Meanwhile, the Phillies now look like a surefire favorite to win the NL pennant, and the Rangers are younger and deeper than New York. They reportedly have interest in Adrian Beltre as a consolation prize after losing Lee, which might make them as good as the Yankees.

Finally, consider the eroding talents and loyalties of the core group that made the Yankees so great over the past 15 years. These men are the generals who have facilitated this empire’s great military victories. In the wake of Steinbrenner’s retirement and subsequent depth, these generals have found themselves dealing with his son Hal, a rather bumbling (or at least underwhelming) successor. The ensuing frustrations and gaffes, while perhaps nothing George himself could have avoided, reflect the strain on New York’s critical power centers.

Derek Jeter squared off with Hal in a rather embarrassing exchange that was as bad for morale as it was for public perception of the unified Yankee front. Nor should Jeter have felt sufficiently entitled to assume such a standoffish posture: He had his worst offensive season in over a decade this year, and his defense at shortstop went from bad to worse. In other words, the empire’s greatest general is now a mildly rebellious and eminently impotent leader.

Mariano Rivera, whose contract negotiation ostensibly went much more smoothly, reportedly came close to an alarming turn of his coat. His representatives reached out to the Red Sox, who eventually (at the urging of his agents) made him a contract offer. That was probably a leverage move by Rivera and the agents, and it worked to the tune of a two year, $30 million contract. Still, it never used to be that Yankee legends would use the Red Sox (or anyone else, but especially Boston) to create leverage in a negotiation with management. Rivera had a great 2010, but at 41, he too is beginning to show his age.

If Jeter has gotten a bit big for his britches and Rivera has apparently pondered an unimaginable defection, the most outwardly rebellious and problematic of the old Yankee guard is still Jorge Posada. Posada had no contract disputes to muddy the water this winter, but he has spent the past two seasons as an aging malcontent, getting into tiffs with manager (and former teammate) Joe Girardi, ceasing to catch for A.J. Burnett and battling injuries that mount as he ages.

Mind you, it is not as easy as merely replacing those guys. They cannot be easily replaced. The Yankees farm system is decent, but they simply will not be producing five future Hall of Fame players again within the next decade. That was lightning caught in a bottle, and it’s tough to do twice.

Meanwhile, GM Brian Cashman may be running into more walls than he thought as he tries to hold the whole contraption together. Cashman recently called himself the “director of spending” for the Yankees, which could hardly have sat well with the younger Steinbrenner. The two men have struggled to present a coherent message about the Yankees’ plans for the offseason that it is not at all hard to imagine Lee electing the more stable environment of Philadelphia.

So it is. The builder and leader of a great empire is dead, and in his stead stands an insufficient successor upon whom only heredity has conferred that privilege. The public heads of state (i.e. Girardi and Cashman) seem intent on gaining increased autonomy within the reorganized regime. The men who have won the empire’s greatest battlefield victories are beginning to fade from their former glory, and discordant feelings among them threaten the unity of the troops in the field. The Huns are crossing the Alps, and the richest empire in the history of the baseball world lacks the wherewithal to hold them off. 

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