Around 12:30 this morning, my phone buzzed with an e-mail alert, one I was not ready for and expecting.
According to T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com, Cliff Lee has just agreed to sign a five-year deal for about $115 million with the Philadelphia Phillies.
The deal, according to ESPN's Jerry Crasnick, has a vesting option for a sixth year in Philadelphia.
Lee turned down offers from both the Texas Rangers, who had offered five-year and six-year deals to stay with the 2010 American League Champions, and the New York Yankees, who had offered a seven-year deal worth about $155 million.
First, let me admit, I got it all wrong with Lee. Really wrong.
I was convinced that Lee was going to come to the Bronx this winter because of the desperate need the Yankees had for starting pitching and because of the Yankees offering the most money.
Usually, the Yankees don't get turned down very often when they offer the most money, like the case two years ago when the Yankees offered seven years and $161 million to get CC Sabathia.
But if you want to look really hard at it, Lee turned down two guaranteed years and $40 million less to go back to Philadelphia. Why?
Does the Game 3 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium stick in the minds of Lee and his wife Kristen, when she and along with other wives of the Rangers, had beer and spit thrown into their direction sitting in the visitors' players' seats?
Lee said that the incidents of that night would not play into his decision. I beg to differ here, because if he wanted to come to New York, he should have done so say...Thursday?
It really makes it look like that Lee never really wanted to come to the Yankees all along and basically took the Yankees for a ride and left them empty handed in the end.
(If any fans from that night in October who are reading this and were present during Game 3 and in the vicinity of those fans who spat at and threw beer at Lee's wife, WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP THEM???
Throw a tackle, distract them, buy them 10 beers in the Diamond Club, anything to stop them from that. You knew the Yankees were going to negotiate with that woman's husband to come here. Also, if you were one of those fans who did spit and throw beer at Lee's wife, don't bother ever coming to Yankee Stadium again.)
The Yankees aren't the only team left empty handed in this, as the Rangers are just as empty handed.
Texas would have never gone as far as they did in 2010 without Lee helping them get to their first World Series in franchise history.
Now, Texas is a good team and probably would have won the A.L. West with or without Lee, but they wouldn't have made the World Series, much less even gotten out of the series with the Tampa Bay Rays without Lee.
The Phillies and their general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. look like an utter genius here in this whole drama.
Amaro just sits back, lets Texas and New York fight it out for over a week, dishing out the cash, frantically waiting for a decision from Lee, (especially to the point where Texas owner Chuck Greenberg underminds Nolan Ryan's and Jon Daniels' power by flying to Arkansas to up Texas' offer for Lee himself), while he at the last second, hands out an offer for Lee that he accepts.
Amaro was the ultimate opportunist there; he is a very smart man.
Oh, and so is Sports Illustrated and WFAN's Jon Heyman, who had said ALL ALONG there was a "mystery team" in the bidding for Lee.
George King of the New York Post had said the "mystery team" offered only a four or five-year deal, much less than the Rangers or Yankees.
Many felt there was no such team, and even criticized and mocked Heyman for his reporting on the "mystery team."
Guess what mockers and doubters, Heyman got it right, he got it right the whole freakin' time!
So now for the Yankees, where does this leave them?
Brian Cashman at the beginning of the Winter Meetings emphasized the need for starting pitching, which meant all in for Lee.
Well guess what Brian, you haven't signed squat yet. And you just missed out AGAIN on Lee.
It really kind of annoys me that Cashman missed out and refused to go up on his seven-year offer for Lee, not even a smidgen to budge on his offer.
This is the same General Manager who traded for Randy Johnson, who couldn't win a playoff game and missed out on Carlos Beltran because of that trade, gave money to Carl Pavano, who spent nine-tenths of his time on the disabled list in four years, traded for Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez (twice), who couldn't get an out in Game 7 of the ALCS against Boston, gave money to Jaret Wright, who all but lost his velocity, command and ability to pitch, and Kei Igawa, who has basically been a minor leaguer for the last four going on five seasons.
Cashman will give guys like that money, getting horrible results, yet, he will not budge on his offer for Lee, who is a guaranteed winner, especially winning big games in the postseason.
Way to go Brian. You really showed them by not budging on that offer. I'm sure George Steinbrenner is turning over in his grave as we speak about this.
So now, really, what do the Yankees do?
Zack Greinke's name has come up in conversations, but right now, the Toronto Blue Jays and Washington Nationals, another team that missed out on Lee, are in hot pursuit of Greinke and could offer a better package to the Kansas City Royals for him.
Plus, with Greinke's history of an anxiety disorder, New York may not be the best place for him to call home, even if he said he would have waived his no-trade clause for a trade to the Yankees.
Matt Garza has also been rumored to be on the trading block, but really, do you think the Tampa Bay Rays, another Yankee rival, is going to trade one of their big-game pitchers to an in-division rival? No chance in hell that happens.
We all wondered what Plan B is if the Yankees didn't sign Lee.
It's a great question, because right now, the Yankees don't know it, because they never thought it would ever happen.
Maybe right now, Cashman gets on the phone with Andy Pettitte and literally begs him to come back for one final season instead of retiring.
With or without Pettitte, the Yankees still have a burning need for starting pitching, especially considering how much better their rival Boston Red Sox got over the last week.
In a week's time, they traded for first basemen Adrian Gonzalez and signed Carl Crawford and added them to an offense that already has Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz.
So now not only did the Yankees lose out on the one pitcher they coveted all year long, they just became the second best team in the division in a matter of a week.
I wonder how that sits well for the fans in New York? Not too well I'm guessing. Because personally, it makes me sick.
So now, as Yankees Universe sits here on this early Tuesday, stunned, shocked and some in disgust, many will now wonder what will the Yankees do in the wake of missing out on Lee?
Does Cashman have anymore tricks up his sleeve this winter?
He has to, because right now, his pitching staff is rather thin and needs some serious help.
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