Off Topic
As pretty much every follower of YS9 can tell you, unless the Nine do something big Dave Lee will be a free agent come next year. Lee is 27 years old. He’s a left-handed pitcher from Shady Side, Maryland who throws three junky pitches in such a myriad of ways as to twist hitters up as tight as the lid on a pickle jar. He led the league in wins last year, and in starts. And WHIP, BB/9 and K/BB for good measure. He’s been as durable as they come, and sports an 88-32 record over his career.
It all adds up to say that Dave Lee is going to be a very rich man.
The only question is which team will pay him the dollars, and how many trucks will he be needing to carry away all those dollars. If rumors are true, Lee’s representation is hoping to leverage the league max six seasons on the deal, which would run him out to age 33. That’s a bit of a danger zone when it comes to pitchers and their injury/aging patterns (see Valle, Carlos, or Chávez, José, or LaLoosh, Crash, or …), but, again, Lee has proven hardy to date. The Nine front office has been more in the frame of mind to stick to three seasons, with maybe an option on a fourth. So time will tell.
The good news for fans is that the two sides seem somewhat close on Annual Average Value numbers, with rumors running between $10M-$15M a season.
So, really, the answer to the question(s) are that likely Lee will get some $80m-$90m of some team’s cash for five or six seasons. With the team’s other two top aces in rehabilitation from big injuries (Valle and youngster Loan Duval), it’s hard to see how the club could afford to let him walk. That said, this front office has done weird things before. Don’t sell them short here.
