Thirty days ago at Rangers Ballpark Cliff Lee was made mortal by Edgar Renteria. Before the ball made it over the left field fence it was painfully obvious that Lee might very well have been pitching his last inning on that mound in a home uniform. Despite it being only the seventh inning, the game and the season were lost on that homerun. A month later all that we have of last year are the fading memories and the promise of a quickly arriving spring. What do Ranger fans have to look forward to? Sadly at this point only a catcher, who in 10 years has only started more than 80 games in a season twice, named Yorvit Torrealba.

The question is, will Lee be throwing to Yorvit? Either way, I think I speak for the majority when I say that I just want to know. I understand the reasoning behind waiting until the Winter Meetings, being held in Orlando next week.  All of baseball’s top brass will be together which will make Lee’s agent, Darek Braunecker’s,  job easier. I hate to say this but the longer we wait and the more teams Lee hears from, the worse the chances of him spending his summers in Texas become.

It’s widely believed that Lee is the most valuable player on the free agent market this season. Just yesterday it was announced that non-free agent, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies extended his contract through 2020 for $134 million, that money won’t even begin trickling into his bank account for three years. That’s over $19 million a year, roughly what the Rangers are prepared to pay Lee. There’s no way he signs for anything close to that now.

I will say one thing for the Texas Rangers, their management isn’t stupid. Nolan Ryan sees what’s happening so he’s going after the Yankee’s longtime starter Andy Pettite.  Pettite has already said that if he comes back to baseball next year rather than retire that he will only be a Yankee.  At least Ryan has the foresight to drive Pettite’s asking price up a little bit and force the Yankees to shell out a few more million dollars than they would have had to otherwise.

A serious issue with waiting out Cliff Lee is the other free agents that are signing or going to be signing elsewhere. True, Victor Martinez was not going to solve any problems for the Rangers. He’s not a good enough catcher and platooning him with Mitch Moreland at first and probably Vladimir Guerrero at designated hitter would be a waste of money, the numbers he would put up would likely be comparable to both Moreland’s and Guerrero’s over the course of the season. What about Guerrero though, who has not been offered a contract? If the Rangers choose to go a different direction for DH that’s fine, but Lance Berkman is meeting with Oakland today, Paul Konerko of the White Sox will decide by tonight whether he will be a free agent or not, if he does he won’t be on the market long, even Manny Ramirez can still hit the ball, but not for a team that is already handcuffed by a $25 million a year contract that might not even be signed.

The Rangers have no choice but to wait out Cliff Lee. I believe that signing him would make the Rangers a better team. I don’t believe he will be worth every dime that will be paid to him, it’s hard to believe that in six years he will be the pitcher he is today, but one World Series would be worth whatever he costs. But if Lee wants to be a Ranger it’s time for him to make a decision. There are only so many people who can fill the holes behind him and put runs on the board while he’s sitting in the dugout.

As the sting of Renteria’s shot begins to fade so are the Rangers’ options.