Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com is hearing from baseball executives that Derrek Lee is looking for a salary around $8-10 million.
He surmises, much like Jon Heyman did last Friday, that such a salary will likely be too high for the Padres, but that the Nationals could still be a fit.
The 35-year-old Lee is asking a little much for someone who posted a .774 OPS last season and dealt with numerous injuries, remember that the market was set by Lance Berkman getting $8 million from the Cardinals and Carlos Pena signing for $10 million (with half of the money deferred) with the Cubs. And they didn’t exactly set the world on fire last season, either.
In a world where Adam LaRoche is apparently getting a three-year, $21 million offer from the Orioles and Lee has expressed a willingness to sign a one-year deal, this request suddenly looks pretty reasonable.