MLB Trade Rumors: Cliff Lee is Now a Member of the Texas Rangers

Update: (2:28pm CDT) The player to be named later, according to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan, is minor leaguer Blake Beaven.

Update: (2:25pm CDT) The players involved in the deal to Seattle are Justin Smoak and minor leaguers Josh Lueke, Matt Lawson and one other player to be named later. The player to be named later, and this is just speculation, could be pitcher Derek Holland or possibly minor league pitcher Tanner Scheppers. 

Update: (4:15pm CDT) ESPN's Buster Olney on the trade talks between the Mariners and Yankees falling apart. "The Yankees and Mariners had actually had an agreement-in-principle, based on the physicals and SEA stepped away, which is all fair game."

Update: (4:00pm CDT) Joel Sherman of the NY Post, via Twitter, reports that the deal is done and that Cliff Lee is headed to the Texas Rangers.

The players involved are Justin Smoak, pitcher Mark Lowe, and three other players that haven't been named yet.

Update: (3:53pm CDT) Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that it's a two team race between the Rangers and the Reds for Cliff Lee.

Update: (3:45pm CDT) Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, via Twitter, says that Justin Smoak is not in the lineup tonight for the Texas Rangers. Could be just a coincidence or a matchup move.

Could this mean that the Rangers are close to a deal?

Update: (3:35pm CDT) Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal, via Twitter, says that the Cincinnati Reds could be the other team that is a dark horse for Cliff Lee.

Update: (3:22pm CDT) ESPN's Buster Olney, "Rangers are back on Lee. Hard to imagine Texas making this deal happen without Justin Smoak being part of the deal."

Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News had a source tell him, "There will be a battle royale over this if Texas gets Lee. Every other team in baseball is supplementing the Rangers right now, so they have no business taking on Lee's salary."  

Update: (3:10pm CDT) Joel Sherman of the NY Post, via Twitter, is confirming that the mystery team in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes is in fact the Texas Rangers. Stay tuned, this could get interesting.

Update: (3:05pm CDT) ESPN's Buster Olney updates the situation via Twitter. "The Yankees had hoped to strike aggressively, strike quickly, and get a resolution to this. But Seattle might still be shopping for an alternative."

Update: (3:00pm CDT) Joel Sherman says, via Twitter, "To repeat the Yankees aren't getting Cliff Lee, Mariners concerned about David Adams ankle plus apparently another team has jumped in hard."

Update: (2:55pm CDT) On 105.3 FM The Fan in Dallas, Gregg Henson was tipped off that Rangers' general manager Jon Daniels was supposed to have a chat session with one of the local news outlets and had to miss it.

Now whether or not that means that the mystery team is the Rangers we don't know, it could be purely speculation. We'll have to wait and see.

Update: (2:50pm CDT) ESPN's Buster Olney, via Twitter, chimes in and says that big concerns over the players involved seems to have killed the Yankees proposed deal.

Just when we thought this was going to be another ho-hum trade for the New York Yankees to land another Cy Young award winner, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the deal is off.

Sherman, via Twitter, reports that the Mariners are concerned over second baseman David Adams' ankle and says another team has apparently jumped in hard.

About an hour ago, ESPN had reported that the deal was “done” between the Mariners and Yankees and that Lee was no a member of the New York Yankees. Seems ESPN can't save face after the debacle last night with LeBron James and now has misinformation on this deal as well.

There is more news to come and we'll update it as the news continues to pour in.

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