Yanks Will Offer Lee 6-Year Deal

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated tweeted this morning that the Yankees are planning to offer Cliff Lee a 6-year deal. Apparently, the Yankees are not affected by yesterday's rumor that a team has expressed a willingness to offer "The Assassin" 7 years.

A six year deal will probably bank Lee a payout of between $138-$150 million. While the Yankees have yet to officially announce an actual price on any contract offer for Lee, the range is what most baseball analysts believe it probably will be.

If Lee is now seeking 7 years, there's no question that this is the result of the Nats signing Jayson Werth to a 7-year, $126 million deal. This is one of the dangers of top free-agents getting erroneous contracts; the other free-agents' agents that have yet to come to an agreement for their client tend to get greedy and seek comparable compensation. While Werth is just one year younger than Lee, his wear-and-tear will be considerably less by age 38 as an outfielder than Lee at 39 pitching.

MLB Network begins their second day of live coverage at the Winter Meetings today at 11am. There will probably be some buzz surrounding the Lee rumor and the Yankees potential offer. Stay tuned...

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