Yesterday, Texas sent several high-ranking officials to meet with Cliff Lee at his home in Arkansas. They apparently threw out several possible contract options, even going so far as to include several "perks" for Lee's family. What that means is pure speculation but if it's anywhere close to what the Dodgers offered Kevin Brown back in '99, "perks" could mean, among other things, the use of a private jet several times a year for Lee's family. Many believe Texas is really pushing the pace with Lee, trying to get a commitment from him one way or another, as they still have several other areas to address.
Should Lee sign with someone other than Texas, the Rangers would certainly turn their attention back to Kansas City's Zack Greinke and/or Tampa's Matt Garza. Greinke will undoubtedly take two top tier prospects plus a couple of second tier players, Garza could well command almost as much as whomever he ends up with will control his rights for 3 more seasons. Were Texas unable to acquire either pitcher, they might look to rely on C.J. Wilson and Colby Lewis to carry the rotation early on while hoping for continued improvement from Tommy Hunter and a return to form for Scott Feldman. This is truly frightening.
Jon Daniels and company have made contact with DH Vlad Guerrero, who continues to push for a 2-year contract. Oakland is rumored to have interest in the slugger after failing to land Lance Berkman however, their failure to sign Berkman was due to their lack of interests in signing him to a multi-year deal. As it stands, Vlad may be looking at another 1-year contract with an option year, similar to what he signed last season with Texas. His inability to play even sparingly in the field (the World Series proved as much) drops his asking price dramatically.
If Texas is unable to sign a Vlad (or someone of comparable talent like Magglio Ordonez or Jim Thome) I would have to think they'd at least consider moving Michael Young to DH and making a run at someone like Adrian Beltre. Another possibility would be to platoon Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz at DH and hope Julio Borbon is ready to finally take over in CF.
Texas also must address their bullpen. While Ogando, O'Day, Francisco, Oliver & Feliz (unless he's moved into the rotation should Texas fail to sign Lee or trade for another stud pitcher) the other two bullpen spots are open to competition. Currently Texas would look to Michael Kirkman, Mark Lowe, Derek Holland, Matt Harrison, Omar Beltre, Clay Rapada & newly acquired Yoshinori Tateyama to battle it out for those spots.
Make no mistake about it, Cliff Lee is the Big Bad Wolf of free agency this season and Texas is rightly doing everything they can to hang on to him. However, the Lee sweepstakes needs to come to an end so the Rangers can move on and throw their full attention towards other areas of importance.
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