Cliff Lee Won't Be Traded To Rangers, Probably

What we already knew was that the Phillies weren't entirely opposed to the idea of trading Cliff Lee and his contract. What we already knew was that a Cliff Lee trade between the Phillies and Rangers was unlikely. Now it looks like we can bump that one level north of "unlikely." Reports:

Source says Cliff Lee deal to Texas is "not going to happen." More to come at ESPN.com

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 30, 2012

Source: Lee talks with #Rangers never gained momentum. #Phillies offered little relief on contract. Beckett talks w/TEX also nowhere. MORE

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 30, 2012

It's confirmed that the Phillies and Rangers did talk about a Cliff Lee trade -- this wasn't just speculation -- but nothing got going. The spark didn't catch. Teams exchange plenty of names, all the time, and most of those name-exchanges don't lead to trades, and this name-exchange won't lead to a trade, probably. Lee is outstanding, but he's simply due too much money over the rest of his contract, and the Rangers don't want to take on the bulk of that. It seems.

With the deadline still nearly a full day away, you never know when one team might suddenly change its mind about something, so we can't declare with 100-percent certainty that Cliff Lee will not get traded to the Rangers. He just almost certainly won't. He almost certainly won't get traded anywhere this week.

Cliff Lee Trade A Long Shot

Monday, there have been reports that the Phillies are considering a Cliff Lee trade. Consider this, from Friday:

The Phillies plan to keep Cliff Lee, and won't trade him before the Tuesday trade deadline, sources say.

And now consider this, from later on Monday:

Last I heard, #dodgers were not in on lee. Due to $, #rangers consider lee a "long shot"

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) July 30, 2012

The Phillies are willing to listen to offers for Cliff Lee, because why wouldn't they be? No team will probably come up with a suitable offer for Cliff Lee, or at least with an offer that the Phillies consider to be suitable. So Cliff Lee probably will not be traded.

The main reason is that Lee is due an awful lot of money: $25 million in 2013, $25 million in 2014, $25 million in 2015, and at least $12.5 million in 2016. To say nothing of Lee's salary for the rest of 2012. He's an expensive, nearly-34-year-old starting pitcher, who is very good but very costly. Lee's contract limits the pool of possible partners, and those partners won't overwhelm the Phillies with an offer. The Phillies would also like to try to contend around a Lee/Cole Hamels/Roy Halladay foundation in 2013. So. It doesn't look like Cliff Lee is going to get traded anytime soon. Things could change in a hurry, but things could always change in a hurry. Practically all things.

Trade Rumor: Phillies Make Cliff Lee Available