Which is a good thing, of course...
Carlos Lee has hired Scott Boras as his agent...
So any thoughts that Lee is going to cut a quick deal with the Rangers should probably be out the window.
And even though Hicks and Jon Daniels supposedly have a much better relationship with Boras than John Hart did, it makes it a lot less likely that Lee is going to sign here.
#1, the Rangers aren't likely to moneywhip a positional player to come here, the way they did with Kevin Millwood.
And, more importantly, there's a good chance that Lee, like Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado, will end up dragging negotiations out into 2007. The Rangers will only be able to negotiation with him until (I believe) January 8, if they offer him arbitration and he rejects it. Which means there's a good chance that the Rangers will be eliminated by that rule before he even signs a deal.
So this is very good news for those of us who want to take the draft picks and let Carlos Lee go on his way, and very bad news for the media folks who are touting the "the Lee trade was good only if the Rangers re-sign him" nonsense...