Rosenthal: Indians Still Shopping Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez

Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi report that the Indians are shopping Cliff Lee to a number of clubs and that Victor Martinez will be shopped as well, although the Adam LaRoche deal removes Boston as a possible destination for Martinez.

 

The Phillies, Rays, Brewers and Dodgers are on Lee, and the Rangers have expressed continued interest.

The Rangers have "no money," multiple sources say, but Lee — earning $5.75 million this season with a $9 million club option for next season — is relatively affordable.

A trade of first baseman Hank Blalock, who is earning $6 million, would help clear payroll. The Red Sox discussed Blalock with the Rangers before obtaining LaRoche.

While the Phillies remain interested in Lee, they do not consider him as good a fit as Blue Jays right-hander Roy Halladay.

 

Rosenthal and Morosi write that the trio of lefties already in Philadelphia's rotation (Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, J.A. Happ) make the lefty Lee a less likely target than the righty Halladay.

(Has anyone ever done the research on the potential problems of having a bunch of lefties in the rotation? The Pirates used to worry about this a lot when it looked like lefties Zach Duke, Paul Maholm and Tom Gorzelanny would form a big part of their future starting corps. My sense is that this concern is a little overblown. Looking around N.L. rosters, I don't see many lineups so righty-heavy that having four lefties instead of three would be a huge problem, and a couple of clubs, the Rockies and Braves, have so many lefty hitters that a ton of lefty starting pitching might actually be an advantage for the Phillies. The Cubs, whose power-hitting core of Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee and Alfonso Soriano is all righty, might pose some problems in a short playoff series, but I'm not sure any other NL team would. I see what the Phillies are getting at here, but if they allow this reasoning to stop them from pursuing an otherwise good deal, I think they're probably hurting themselves.)

Also from the article, the Angels are focusing on bullpen help rather than on starting pitchers, the Pirates will trade anyone with any service time (well, duh), and the Giants may not be as willing to trade Jonathan Sanchez as they once were because of uncertainty about Randy Johnson's health.