The ears of the baseball world perked up around 8:45 p.m. ET this evening when Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News -- and other Rangers beat writers -- announced that majority owner Chuck Greenberg was going to be hosting a conference call at 9 p.m. ET. A Lee announcement? Something big?
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Anthony Andro was passing along notes as Greenberg spoke. Unfortunately, there weren’t many notes to pass along.
The call started a couple minutes late and Greenberg revealed next to nothing. The Rangers have made a couple of different offers to Cliff Lee, but they’re not going to talk about details with the media.
Greenberg called the proposal a “substantial commitment in years and dollars” and said that Lee is now “weighing his options.” That’s something called front office-speak.
All of this seems a little fishy. Greenberg and Co. flew down to the left-hander’s Arkansas home this afternoon with a “we want an answer” attitude, but now they’re playing coy.
Nick Nelson, Twins blogger and Rotoworld contributor, opined on Twitter that the conference call was meant as a smoke screen. Nelson might be right. The Rangers can now tell their fans “hey, we tried” when Lee is cracking a grin and buttoning up a pinstriped uniform in a couple of days. It’ll be Lee’s fault, or the Yankees’ fault, not the fault of a limited payroll.
The Yankees have made a seven-year offer worth about $23 million annually and the Rangers were hoping to keep him at five years when this all began. Even if the conference call wasn’t a front, the Red Sox created a YES Network-fueled monster when they signed Carl Crawford to that seven-year, $142 million contract yesterday. The Yanks are pissed off and ready to spend.