SEATTLE — Like so many baseball fans on Friday, Cliff Lee watched ESPN and saw his name crawling across the bottom of the screen amid reports of a trade between the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees.
So, he sent a text message to Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik: “Am I pitching tonight?”
Zduriencik wrote that he’d get back to Lee. When he did, the Mariners had traded their star pitcher, not to the Yankees but to the Texas Rangers in a six-player deal.
Three days ago, Mark Lowe had heard through a baseball friend that his name had been mentioned in a trade scenario involving the Mariners and Rangers. So Lowe got together with Zduriencik behind the batting cage at Safeco Field and asked about it.
“He said, ‘Just don’t worry about anything,’” Lowe said. “At that point, there probably wasn’t anything going on and maybe I’d just caught wind of Texas’ plan.”
Maybe, but when the trade was completed Friday, sending Lee to the Rangers to help in their quest to remain in first place in the American League West, Lowe was part of the deal as well.
Like Lee, Lowe had watched the Mariners-Yankees rumors with interest Friday morning. Then he saw a report about that trade falling apart and that the Rangers had offered power-hitting first baseman Justin Smoak, who the Mariners had wanted.
“When I heard that Smoak became available, I kind of had a sick feeling in my stomach that maybe something was going to happen,” Lowe said.
Lowe is a native Texan, having grown up near Houston and played college baseball at the University of Texas at Arlington. His college team would work in the parking lot at Rangers games.
“My family will be hours away from me instead of thousands of miles,” he said. “It’s a place I’m familiar with, but this is my baseball home. I don’t think it’ll really hit me until I get on the plane to head out of here.”
The Mariners drafted Lowe in the fifth round in 2004, and he began his pro career that summer with the Class A Everett AquaSox. With a fastball that approached 100 mph and a sharp-breaking slider, he reached the big leagues quickly, debuting in 2006.
He bounced back from major elbow surgery in 2006 to become a key factor in the Mariners’ success last year as a right-handed setup reliever.
This year, he suffered a back injury early in the season and had surgery June 15 to repair a herniated disc. He said the trade surprised him because he’s injured.
“But that’s baseball,” Lowe said. “You never know when you’re going to wake up and be in a new place the next day. We’re all used to doing that, going from place and changing teams, getting called up and sent down.
“But it’s a little different for me knowing this is the only team I’ve been with. I became a setup man and helped them win a lot of ballgames last year, and I wish I could have helped them this year.”
Lee said he sensed a trade was getting close Thursday night when his agent said teams were requesting background information on him.
He was scheduled to start Friday’s game against the Yankees, and it wasn’t until early Friday afternoon that he learned his next outing would be with the Rangers, possibly tonight against the Baltimore Orioles. He flew from Seattle to Texas on Friday afternoon.
Lee has been traded three times in the past 12 months, going from the Cleveland Indians to the Philadelphia Phillies last July 29, then from the Phillies to the Mariners on Dec. 16, and now to the Rangers.
“Any time you get traded, there’s uncertainty and you don’t know what to expect,” he said. “But they’re in first place and I’m going to go there and do everything I can to keep them in the position they’re headed.
“My experience in Seattle has been great. Great fans, great teammates. I love the guys. And it’s unbelievable that the weather is just starting to get nice and now I’m gone.”
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