Lee's snub hurts Yankees a lot more than it does the Rangers

Cliff Lee's surprise 11th-hour return to his old team has set off so much rejoicing in the City of Brotherly Love that some Philadelphia Phillies fans have taken to putting together biblical Photoshops.

But in the midst of such inspired sacrilegious enthusiasm in Philly, the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers are left to enact their Plan Bs after seeing their passioned pursuits of Lee turn sour.

So which of the two teams were hurt more by Lee's decision to take less money and join Philly's fantastic four? 

Their situations were only similar in that both franchises were coming off playoff appearances and looking to add one of the top-five starters in baseball for the next six or seven years.

And the differences, of course, are easy to see. The Rangers needed a bona fide No. 1 starter — something they lacked for the last 20 years until trading for Lee midseason — and were willing to commit a lot of the team's payroll going forward to make sure he wouldn't leave.

The Yankees, meanwhile, coveted Lee as a high-profile handcuff to CC Sabathia, a rotation reinforcement that would take pressure off Phil Hughes and A.J. Burnett by finally ending the No. 2 starter questions that plagued the team the last two seasons. Their only cost would be a fraction of the millions of dollars printed daily at Yankee Stadium.

But while the Yankees already have a staff ace under their control and are free to allocate those riches on a few more pitchers instead of just one, it's hard not to think that they're in a position to feel a little more heartache on this day after.

Why?

Well, competition is one reason. The Boston Red Sox scored big coups with the acquisitions of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, and the Yankees were looking to add Lee in an attempt to make sure their neighbors to the north weren't the universal favorites in next year's AL East race. The Rangers only have to make sure they stay ahead of the Los Angeles Angels — one of this offseason's biggest losers so far — in the weak, four-team AL West.

Flexibility is another. Had Lee allowed the Rangers to dump seven years and $160 million-plus at his feet, GM Jon Daniels would have taken a big step away from the franchise-building approach that got the Rangers through their bankruptcy issues and into their first World Series in team history. Committing that much money and time to a 32-year-old pitcher is a big risk and one that would have been more easily taken by a richer team like the Yankees (or, for that matter, the Phillies).  

Finally, it would seem that the Rangers have more options to pursue before 2011's opening day. They'll get two draft picks for losing Lee and they already possess a farm system deep enough to make a run at prying Zack Greinke away from the Kansas City Royals. He'd be a perfect and much cheaper fit for his home-state team.

As for the Yankees, everyone already seems to be following this "Greinke wouldn't be able to handle the NYC media" line — whether it's true or not — and the top pitcher on the free-agent market is now their old pal, Carl Pavano. They've gone from only having to tap their never-ending money supply to add a game-changing ace (Lee) to now having to make tough decisions about their farm system if they want to acquire one through trade.

Neither team, of course, can feel good about losing out on the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, not when they devoted so much time and energy wooing him over the last month.

But when it comes to which team will pine a little bit longer, the answer has to be the Yankees.

January Jones Christina DaRe Malin Akerman Melissa Joan Hart Bianca Kajlich