According to the New York Post, the Mariners believe the Yankees will be “in the hunt” when they eventually shop starting pitcher Cliff Lee.
“They want one of the catchers and (Eduardo) Nunez,’’ a person familiar with Seattle’s thought process if they deal with the Yankees.
Austin Romine is catching at Trenton (Double-A) and Jesus Montero is catching for SWB (Triple-A). They are considered the top prospects in the organization, which also has young catchers Gary Sanchez and J.R. Murphy in addition to Francisco Cervelli, who is in the big leagues.
The immediate need for the Yankees is a bat but if the Mariners are going to shop Lee the Yankees will be interested because he will be a free agent after the season. Of course, he is making $9 million this season so even if the deal is made at the July 31 deadline the Yankees would have to pay him $3 million.
If they were to give up Romine or Montero, the Yankees would need assurances that Lee would sign an extension and not become a free agent.
What’s interesting about this report is that it states that the Mariners “believe” that the Yankees will be interested in Lee. It doesn’t say that the Yankees actually are interested in him. It would be a bold strategy on Seattle’s behalf to entice New York by stating that the Yankees are interested in Lee when they haven’t even been contacted by them yet. Of course, if they really want one of the Bombers’ two catchers, it wouldn’t be a bad plan of attack.
Of course, these are the Yankees that we’re talking about here. It would be newsworthy if they weren’t interested in a stud player.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
