The Philadelphia Phillies are nearly 12 games out of first place and likely starting to sell and while Cliff Lee will be very hard to deal because of his contract, one reason why it is even harder in a deal with the Boston Red Sox is due to their high asking price, which is for prized prospect Xavier Bogaerts.
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports that any deal for Boston involving Lee must have Bogaerts involved and that is one reason why the Red Sox may just simply say no. Lee is obviously a fantastic pitcher and with the Sox looking like World Series contenders at just a half game out of the East, why not go for broke on Lee? The team is moving slowly while deciding and chances are the deal won't happen, as there are too many hang-ups leading into Wednesday, the final day of the deadline.
Bogaerts is having a great year while hitting .298 with 14 homers, 59 RBI, 61 runs scored and seven stolen bases and while he is great, maybe the Sox should just go all in for a deal and give up the 20-year-old. While prospects can turn out to be superstars, sometimes they end up as nobodies and if Lee gives Boston a better chance to win the World Series, why not just go for the deal? The team obviously will do its due diligence on both sides of the deal, and one reason may be due to the prospects ability to have good at-bats, as he has 23 walks and just 29 K's at Triple-A.
Ken Rosenthal wrote that the team should go for it because it means a World Series and while the prospect could be great and could help the team in future years, what about right now and winning a World Series? The team already has given away past prospects like Hanley Ramirez for Josh Beckett and that helped win a title, so why not go for it again? Only time will tell.
