The Rangers have put up a fight against the Yankees in the ALCS, and new owner Chuck Greenberg vowed again yesterday that the same would be true in the offseason, when ace lefty Cliff Lee becomes one of the most sought-after free agent pitchers ever.
“We’re not going into it with a pea shooter,” Greenberg said before his Rangers dropped Game 5 of the ALCS to the Yankees, 7-2, yesterday in The Bronx. “We can’t control what the Yankees or any other club chooses to offer. We can only control our own decisions, and we know that we are going to have to be aggressive financially. We’re prepared to do that.”
Given Lee’s success in the playoffs, especially against the Yankees, that doesn’t figure to be easy.
Lee could further pad his resume with a Game 7 in this series if the Yankees win in Arlington tomorrow, or in the World Series, where Lee made his mark last year with two wins over the Yankees while with the Phillies.
Greenberg, who bought the team with Nolan Ryan during the season when the club was struggling financially, said the organization is fine now and already has virtually guaranteed the return of GM Jon Daniels.
But it’s Lee, who has a 7-0 record and a 1.26 ERA in the postseason, who figures to be the hardest piece to lock down for the future.
“We’ve all been just getting to know one another,” Greenberg said. “At the end of the day, Cliff is going to make a lot of money, and it’s going to be up to Cliff and his family where that’s going to be.”
Greenberg would like for that to be in Arlington, but he knows there’s still work to be done.
“The time will come to talk about money, but that time is not yet,” Greenberg said. “Right now is about what happens on the field and being comfortable off the field.”