Lee, Gonzalez would add intrigue to dormant deadline dealing

After the MLB Draft ends, annually what follows for teams are these three steps:

1. They stop saying it is early.

2. They size up, with one-third of the schedule gone, who they are.

3. They shift their focus and front-office personnel from the draft to the July 31 trade deadline.

The early read is the Cubs are ready to act — namely in moving Ryan Dempster and listening to offers for Matt Garza — and a few other already-dead teams such as the Padres, Astros and A’s would do business if they heard the right deal.

But multiple executives expect the market will be slowed by having a second wild card in each league because that will give hope — often falsely to teams that shouldn’t have it. One National League executive described the current state as the ninth hole on the first day of the U.S. Open, when much of the field thinks it can contend.

“By July 14, this thing will spread out and it will be like the end of the second day at the Open, when everyone knows who is real and who is not,” the executive explained.

Thus, at present, no clear difference-makers appear available. For example, when I asked about Dempster, a Yankees official said he would just “muddy the water.” Translation: He’s not definitively an upgrade on what the team currently has.

What folks are generally waiting to see is if the Phillies or Brewers — playoff teams last year — declare themselves sellers and make Cole Hamels and Zack Greinke available.

Both are superb, but both are in their walk years and rules within the new CBA make that less attractive to acquire. Now, a walk-year player traded during a season cannot be offered arbitration afterward. Therefore, the acquiring team can no longer recoup draft picks if the player leaves in free agency as, say, Milwaukee did when it obtained CC Sabathia from Cleveland during the 2008 season and then lost him to the Yankees in free agency.

In the past, teams could trade prospects for a rental and — at worst — restock the farm somewhat by getting extra draft picks. Now, you might trade for 10-15 starts, not make the playoffs or make the one-game wild-card playoffs and get knocked out, and have only that to show for giving away top prospects.

In Greinke’s case, big-market teams might shy away under the belief he could not handle that forum — as the Yankees did when Greinke was traded after the 2010 season. Nevertheless, Greinke or Hamels would enliven the marketplace.

But to really spice up the marketplace, I am going to suggest two other players with this proviso: These are players I would make available if I ran these teams, not players I have heard are actually available. I want to repeat: These are not players I have heard are available.

However, let’s see if I can make a case why Cliff Lee and Carlos Gonzalez should be:

LEE

The problem with the Hamels market was explained above. Lee, meanwhile, would be owed the rest of a $21.5 million contract this year, then have three years remaining at $25 million each and a 2016 vesting option for $27.5 million or $12.5 million buyout. In other words, an acquiring team would control the lefty for quite a while.

He does have a nine-team no-trade list. Plus, Lee turned down the potential for more overall cash to sign with Philadelphia because he had liked playing there previously. So it could breach a trust, especially since the Phillies already traded Lee once (after the 2009 season) when he didn’t want to go.

But they traded him then because they added Roy Halladay and believed they needed to restock a thinning farm system. In this scenario, they would potentially be able to retain Hamels (with the money saved from dealing Lee) and their system is even more depleted now.

Would the Phillies be better off with Hamels (who is 4 ¹/₂ years younger than Lee) plus adding the prospects from a Lee deal or by keeping Lee, not getting those youngsters and losing Hamels? Now, to trade Lee, the Phillies would have to know Hamels, a Southern Californian who folks in the industry see heading toward a big Dodgers payday, would take their money.

The Phils are in a tough spot. They are in the midst of the best stretch in team history (five straight division titles, two pennants, one title). They want to honor that run and the full houses they get each game at Citizens Bank Park by continuing to go for it. But to get there they have had to strip their farm system while elevating the age of their major league roster. They need a mechanism to get younger while still contending.

They could contend without Lee if Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Halladay get healthy/productive (remember, they won it all in 2008 with just one unquestioned ace in Hamels). And they can’t win even with Lee if that trio does not rediscover close to their peak form. But either way the Phillies would be best served with an injection of talented youth that Lee could bring in a trade.

His expense might scare away some teams, and he has been on the disabled list in each of the last two seasons for abdominal/oblique injuries. But he is 33, not 38. He’s proven he can thrive in both leagues, a tough market and the playoffs.

Lee has shown his affinity for Philly, but maybe he would consider a deal because no one has been hurt more by the team’s offensive/bullpen woes than Lee, who is winless (0-3) despite a 3.48 ERA, an average of a strikeout per inning, fewer hits than innings pitched and — as usual — one of the majors’ best strikeout-to-walk rates (5.5-to-1). The numbers are quite similar to his pal Sabathia’s, but the Yankee lefty is 8-3 because of much better run and bullpen support.

As a way to gain veto power, Lee probably put only big-market teams that could afford him, such as the Yankees, on his no-trade list. Also, you would wonder if the Yankees would even try again for Lee. They had a trade in principle for Lee with Seattle in July 2010 that collapsed and Lee spurned them for Philly after that season.

Plus, the Yankees vow to stay under $189 million in 2014, and the math just wouldn’t work to add Lee to Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira and also retain Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson. Still, an all-lefty postseason rotation front three of Sabathia, Lee and Andy Pettitte — the trio they thought they had assembled in July 2010 — is pretty enticing.

GONZALEZ

Do the Rockies have the kind of market in which they can afford to have two players — Troy Tulowitzki and Gonzalez — making a combined $36 million-$40 million from 2014-16? As great as that duo is, those are two offensive players eating up significant payroll for a team that plays at Coors Field and probably needs to spend significantly on pitching.

The model of allocating a lot to a few has worked terribly in Rockies history. They had the failed tandem signings of Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle early this century followed immediately by having Todd Helton, Larry Walker, Preston Wilson and Charles Johnson eat more than half the payroll.

The question is whether the Rockies should be proactive when they are again a poor team and trade Gonzalez before his expensive years, at a time when offense is in such great demand they may be able to pull off a Herschel Walker-type deal.

Now, there are some warts on CarGo. You would have to worry if he is a Coors monster, since his home OPS this year is 1.174 compared to .847 on the road and 1.075 to .787 since joining the Rockies in 2009. Also, there are questions about his motor — if he plays hard all the time. He missed yesterday’s game against the Tigers because of a strained right knee and is day-to-day.

But his defenders would say Gonzalez is so extremely talented that he would adapt to be a star anywhere. They also would claim Gonzalez, like the young Carlos Beltran, is so smooth and skilled he makes elements of the game look effortless even while giving effort. The game is never too big or fast for him. Like Beltran, he is an extremely successful base stealer (80.6 percent) and, like Beltran, in his small sample he has excelled in the postseason, going 10-for-17 (.588) in four games with three extra-base hits and two steals.

He is just 26 (born a month after Joba Chamberlain). He is making $5 million this year and then has five years at $71 million due after that — a severe underpay considering his skills.

So he would be attractive for any club. But here is something for the Yankees: The luxury tax is computed by the annual average value of a contract, and because Gonzalez’s extension was for $80 million over seven years, he always counts toward the threshold as that average ($11.43 million) even while making $16 million-$20 million (2014-16).

Also, Yankee Stadium might be even friendlier than Coors to Gonzalez’s lefty power. Is he just the kind of guy Brian Cashman would willingly deal major assets — such as Manny Banuelos, Gary Sanchez, Eduardo Nunez, Mason Williams and Dante Bichette Jr. (his dad was a Rockies star) — for to build a long-term lineup around Gonzalez and Cano, another star who has been criticized for making the game look easy?

joel.sherman@nypost.com