Very odd: It's December; Yanks are sweating

No matter how this Cliff Lee derby shakes out, it already has presented a new twist on a familiar tale: When was the last time anyone made the Yankees this nervous?

This was supposed to be a typical Yankees pursuit: Identify the target, then capture it with the coolness of "Die Hard" cop John McClane saving the world again. Baseball people pegged Lee for a "last penny" guy, and the Yankees naturally would make sure no one would outbid them.

It still might very well end like that. Maybe Saturday, maybe Sunday. You still have to peg the Yankees as the favorite because they are extremely motivated to add Lee to their starting rotation and already have offered him seven years for about $160 million.

But the notion of never seeing these guys sweat has gone the way of, well, reasonable spending in the free-agent market.

The credit goes to two parties: 1) Lee and his agent, Darek Braunecker, and 2) the Rangers.

Braunecker, who runs a boutique agency compared to some of the industry's giants like Scott Boras and SFX, has taught a clinic in using the Hot Stove clock to his advantage. Knowing that interested teams had no great Plan B, he brought along his client's case very deliberately, entertaining some suitors in the Lees' Arkansas home and not accepting any hard offers until just a few days ago. As Cashman discussed the Lee situation Tuesday in Tampa after the Derek Jeter news conference, he didn't even attempt to hide his frustration with the pace.

Cashman went straight from Steinbrenner Field to a dinner meeting with Carl Crawford, and the Yankees hoped such a get-together would create the façade of Crawford as their alternative. But the Yankees never had any intention of signing Crawford, so when the Red Sox anted up seven years and $142 million Wednesday, the frustration came not in missing out on the outfielder but rather in losing leverage to Lee (as well as seeing Crawford join Boston).

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Lee was supposed to sign first, setting in motion the domino effect for Crawford and Jayson Werth. Instead, as Braunecker sat back, those guys raised Lee's market.

Enter the Rangers, the other fear factor. When Yankees bigwigs huddled in early November, they brought in their own information, speculating how much Texas would bid on Lee and expressing confidence they could top it. They offered this one caveat: If Rangers money men Ray Davis and Bob Simpson dipped into their own pockets to fund the agreement, all bets were off.

Well, Davis accompanied Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg and assistant general manager Thad Levine to Lee's home Thursday. If Davis isn't reaching into his reserves, he's at least presenting the appearance that he might be.

Hence the Yankees' concern. The last time they whiffed on such a winter endeavor took place in the 1996-97 offseason when Roger Clemens chose the Blue Jays over them (only to engineer a trade to the Yankees two years later). Before that, you'd go to 1992-93, when Greg Maddux opted for Atlanta and its golf courses over the Bronx.

To be fair, two years ago, CC Sabathia sat on a Yankees offer for about a month before finally committing, and the Yankees felt some pressure there. Not like this, though: Sabathia didn't have a realistic second option, and the Yankees saw plenty of other ways to upgrade the club through the free-agent market at the time.

Nope, this is different: The Yankees have nowhere else to turn, and Lee does. There is tension in the Bronx. Very shortly, it will change to either relief or full-blown panic.