The Rotation (14 page)

Lee went on to pitch for Texas in the World Series before becoming a free agent. Meanwhile, Proefrock, the relationship builder, kept in touch with Braunecker.

“Let us know if you're interested in coming our way,” he emailed him after the World Series.

Ruben Amaro Jr. knew the Phillies could have only one, but even one seemed impossible and he knew it. Still, he asked.

Jayson Werth or Cliff Lee?

Amaro and his top lieutenants had gathered in a conference room at Citizens Bank Park shortly after the Phillies lost to the San Francisco Giants in the 2010 National League Championship Series. The Phillies had hoped to become the first team to win three consecutive National League pennants since the 1942–44 St. Louis Cardinals, but those dreams ended when Ryan Howard took a called third strike from Giants closer Brian Wilson to end the series. While the Giants met Lee and the Texas Rangers in the World Series, Amaro met with his advisors to talk about the future.

Nobody hesitated. Everybody chose Lee.

“One hundred percent across the board,” Amaro said.

The consensus hardly seemed to matter. Werth and Lee were long shots. Werth had established himself as one of the best right-handed-hitting outfielders in baseball since he joined the Phillies in 2007, and he was in line for a major payday as a first-time free agent. Werth knew it, too. He fired longtime agent Jeff Borris during the season and hired Scott Boras in September to replace him. Players hire Boras because he finds monster deals nobody else can, and with Werth and Carl Crawford the two biggest bats on the market it was a near certainty Boras would find somebody somewhere to pony up big money for his new client.

The Phillies strongly believed Werth would not re-sign with them, but never said it publicly. But even with that knowledge it wasn't like Lee would be any easier to sign. They remembered their brief negotiations with Darek Braunecker the previous off-season, although they had the knowledge this time that Lee loved Philadelphia.

“You fantasize, but there's nothing realistic about it,” Amaro said. “Oh, how amazing would it be to add this guy? We look through budgets all the time and our projected payroll and stuff like that. There was nothing that indicated we would be able to add the salary. And there also was no indication we're going to go more than three or four years on a pitcher anyway. A lot of obstacles. I absolutely didn't even think it would fly.”

Lee was the top starting pitcher on the market and the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers were his top suitors. Scott Proefrock laid the groundwork anyway. He sent Braunecker an email on November 2, the Tuesday after the World Series. He complimented Lee on his season and told him that Amaro wanted to meet with Lee in person as early as Thursday to gauge his interest in returning to Philadelphia. Teams could talk to Lee at that time to gauge his interest, but they could not talk money or make an offer. The Rangers held exclusive negotiating rights with Lee until midnight Saturday, although Lee had no intentions to sign before then.

“Thank you,” Braunecker replied. “It was a disappointing end. I'll talk to Cliff.”

Proefrock later told Braunecker that Amaro wanted Kristen Lee at the meeting, too. Kristen seemed more crushed to leave Philadelphia than her husband.

“I'm not sure you want that!!” Braunecker said in a reply email. “She
might let him have it!! Cliff might be in a deer stand. I'll let you know.”

“I'll tell Ruben to wear his Kevlar suit,” Proefrock replied.

“Good idea.”

Amaro and Braunecker spoke over the phone a short time later. Amaro expressed his interest, but made two things clear. First, he didn't think the Phillies could match the Yankees and Rangers in money or years. If Lee truly wanted to return to Philadelphia he would have to bend a little. Second, any talks with the Phillies had to be kept quiet. If word leaked the Phillies were involved, they would pull the plug. The Phillies knew if the Yankees and Rangers discovered they were in the hunt, one or both of them could jack up the price to stratospheric levels. But the Phillies had a more important reason for keeping the talks quiet: public relations.

“We didn't want to gussy the public up to thinking they're in for Lee and then you don't sign Lee,” David Montgomery said. “We thought we had a pretty good season coming up and didn't want to tarnish the off-season by saying, ‘Not only didn't they keep Jayson, they made an effort at Cliff and weren't successful.' ”

To keep things quiet, the Phillies closed their inner circle. Initially, the only three people who knew they were talking to Braunecker and Lee were Amaro, Proefrock, and Montgomery. Pat Gillick, who carries heavy influence in the organization, entered later.

“My wife didn't know,” Proefrock said.

Amaro didn't tell his father, Ruben Amaro Sr.

“Hell, no,” he said.

Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman flew to Little Rock, Arkansas, to meet the Lees and Braunecker on November 10. Cashman called it a “meet and greet.” Rangers President Nolan Ryan, Managing General Partner Chuck Greenberg, and General Manager Jon Daniels flew to Little Rock on November 15, to meet with the Lees and Braunecker. The Rangers touted Texas for its proximity to Lee's home and stressed, while they could not match the Yankees in dollars, Texas has no state income tax, which would make up the difference.

Lee mentioned to Cashman and the Rangers how much he enjoyed his time in Philadelphia. Cashman said later he did not consider that a bad sign. He just thought the Lees were being honest.

“We were in such a fight with Texas trying to get him,” Cashman said. “We figured he's going to make his call and be rich either way.”

Amaro never met the Lees in Arkansas because Braunecker said it wasn't
necessary. Then things got quiet. Every time the Phillies thought they had a good conversation with Braunecker they read how the Yankees or Rangers increased their offer. The Phillies doubted they could make a serious run at Lee, but Amaro took one thing as a good sign: nobody knew the Phillies had been talking with Braunecker, even if they were only casual observers at this point.

The Phillies offered Werth a three-year, $48 million contract. The deal included a fourth-year option that increased the total value to $60 million. The Phillies knew if Werth accepted they had no shot at Lee, but they did not consider it a risk. They knew Werth would not accept. Besides, they kept hearing more and more about the money the Yankees and Rangers were throwing at Lee. Ryan and Daniels flew to Little Rock one more time before the winter meetings.They offered a five-year, $100 million contract, according to
ESPNDallas.com
.

Shortly before the winter meetings on December 6 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Proefrock called Braunecker about two other clients, right-hander Dustin Moseley and left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith. Naturally, they also talked about Lee. Around that time the Phillies heard from one of their scouts that Lee told a business associate that if everything was equal he wanted to be in Philadelphia. Amaro and Proefrock got a jolt from the news. They started to dream big again. They needed to keep trying.

Scott Boras got Jayson Werth his money. He agreed to a seven-year, $126 million contract with the Washington Nationals on the eve of the winter meetings.

Werth was out of the picture. But was Lee in? Darek Braunecker lined up meetings with teams during the meetings at the Swan and Dolphin Resort at Walt Disney World. Braunecker texted Proefrock, letting him know he was available if the Phillies wanted to meet.

“We'd love to meet, but we're sensing we're out of the market and won't be able to play in that range,” Proefrock replied.

Ruben Amaro Jr. wanted to jump in, but the years in the deal were an issue. Amaro spoke with Pat Gillick, who was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame that week. David Montgomery trusts Gillick more than anybody, which has been beneficial for Amaro. If he is getting close to something
or needs help, Gillick can help push his idea over the top.

In many ways Gillick is Amaro's hammer.

“I think they understand now that I've figured out their strategy,” Montgomery said months later. “But anybody in my position would be foolish not to reach out to Pat and see what he's thinking.”

The Phillies purposely kept their distance from Braunecker at the winter meetings. Proefrock ran into him in the hotel lobby, said hello, shook his hand and kept moving.

“I didn't even want to be seen anywhere near the guy,” he said.

Reporters started to mention the Phillies as the third team in the Lee sweepstakes, which Amaro vehemently denied.

“I lied,” he said.

He made no trips to the confessional for his sins.

“I don't care,” he said. “If we were really going to make a serious run at this we couldn't risk it getting out there because I don't know what the Yankees would have done. It's like asking—and this is a totally different scale and level of importance—but it's like asking the chief military officer, are you going to bomb so-and-so today? Let's just let everybody know.That's not how you do business. Sometimes when you're trying to come to some sort of conclusion on something you can't be all that forthright. This isn't necessarily honest or fair. I'd like to think I'm a fairly honest person, but at the same time. . . .”

If it meant telling the truth about their pursuit of Lee and losing him or lying to reporters and getting him, Amaro would lie every time.

Braunecker wanted to get his offers on the table during the winter meetings, return to Little Rock, and have the Lees make a decision shortly after that. The Phillies had not made an offer at that point because they had no reason to believe Lee would leave tens of millions of dollars on the table.

“I don't believe in engaging just to disappoint,” Montgomery said. “If we have a legitimate chance, let's do it. But we did not necessarily feel that we were an eventual destination.”

The Phillies heard about the money the Yankees and Rangers were offering and they were not going to outspend them. They also didn't like the idea of making a multiyear commitment to a 32-year-old pitcher. But Gillick, who is a big believer in going no more than three years on a pitcher, knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a great way to position the Phillies to win multiple championships.

“We've got a window here for a period of time,” he told Montgomery. “Let's take advantage of it before it closes. At some point it is going to close.”

The Phillies left the winter meetings without making an offer. But they left with hope.

Darek Braunecker returned to Little Rock from the winter meetings on Wednesday, December 8. He met with Cliff and Kristen Lee at a restaurant to discuss the offers from the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers. The Lees said they could be happy with the Yankees or Rangers, who would fly to Little Rock one more time. But the more Cliff and Kristen talked with Braunecker the more they wished Philadelphia would engage.