Cubs, Angels in Talks involving Lee

It appears that the Angels may actually be going after Derrek Lee after all. As, according to a report from David Kaplan, “excellent baseball sources” are telling him that the Cubs are in Talks with the Angels to trade Derrek Lee. This  a day after, we learned that the Angels are looking at Xavier Nady to be their replacement at first.

On Tuesday, Kaplan told fans after the Cubs 3-2 lost, that he spoke with people in Los Angeles and they told him that they are not interested in taking on Derrek Lee. But, today, Kapan cites “excellent sources” saying that the Angels are indeed in talks with the Chicago Cubs regarding a trade for Derrek Lee.

An area where the Angels might be concerned to take on Lee, is the fact that he is making $13MM this season. And, although Lee is a free agent after this season, I doubt the Angel would want to be on the hook for the rest of his 2010 salary. So, I would imagine that the Cubs would have eat all if not majority of Lee’s remaining salary.

Lee has been off to sluggish start to the season as he is hitting .232/.339/.366 while hitting 6 home runs and driving another 24 runs. Lee has shown that he can be a slow starter as last year it really was not until June that Lee started to hit, and he finished the year with a line of .306/.393/.579 with 35 home runs and 111 RBI’s.

Despite the report, Gordon Wittenmyer tweeted that the Angels may also be looking at Xavier Nady instead of Derrek Lee. However as I explained yesterday, the Angel may still want to scout Nady a little bit more just to make sure that he is fully healed from his second tommy john surgery, which all signs are saying that he is. Also, Nady can not be traded till June 15th without his permission. But, I don’t really see that being a problem as I’m sure he will take the chance to play everyday and contend, over being with a team that in all likelihood will not be in contention for the rest of the season.

Bottom line is that the Angels are looking, and apparently they are looking really hard and close at the Chicago Cubs. Now, the question is whether or not Lee, who was born in California, will waive his No Trade Clause, if in fact the Cubs and Angels can work out a deal.