Agent: Lee won't rush his decision

In the Rangers clubhouse minutes after his Game 5 loss in the World Series, Cliff Lee said he wouldn't be in any rush this offseason to make a decision.

His agent reiterated that Monday.

"We're just gathering information," Darek Braunecker told The Associated Press. "That's always the early stages of this process."

Lee, the Yankees' top target in this year's free-agent pool - beyond re-signing two of their own free agents, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera - is also coveted by the Rangers, who traded for him in July.

The Yankees reached out to Braunecker, who also represents A.J. Burnett, early Sunday morning to let him know they were interested in Lee and would be making an offer. Braunecker has said he has heard from other teams besides the Yankees and Rangers without specifying.

The lefthander is by far the biggest prize available in the free-agent market.

"This one certainly is a little bit unique in that he's clearly the best player on the free-agent market and not a lot of other things are going to impact our position on Cliff," Braunecker said.

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The agent said not to expect a tour de Lee.

"I don't expect Cliff to be flying all over the country," Braunecker said. "We're really in just the infancy stages of it all. We don't really ever handicap the timing of any of this stuff. We believe that when the right deal presents itself, we'll be prepared to act. And when that might be, that's anybody's guess at this point."