Rumor: Carlos Lee Traded to the Twins

Stay tuned.

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So now the key heading into the final few days before the July 31 deadline well could be the Brewers' Lee, who is better than sugar plums and fairies in the visions of several clubs. The New York Yankees, Houston, Detroit, Minnesota and St. Louis are among those interested.

Problem is, first, Brewers GM Doug Melvin must decide to move Lee, and Melvin has spent most of the past week agonizing over that. The Brewers were tied for sixth in the NL wild-card standings at midweek, 5½ games behind Cincinnati, after losing consecutive games to Pittsburgh -- and six of their past eight.

Melvin was telling clubs he intended to spend Thursday's off day deciding what to do with Lee.

The pros: Keep him, make a run at a playoff berth and retain the goodwill of Milwaukee fans who just recently have begun to put their faith and trust in an organization that has spent most of the past decade as a lost ball in tall weeds.

The cons: Lee is going to be a free agent this winter, the Brewers are risking losing him for nothing, and what if they decide to keep him and then fall out of the wild-card race two weeks from now?

Indications are, especially with Bowden's high asking price for Soriano, the Brewers could knock the monuments right out of Washington if they make Lee available, because clubs in search of a bat view him as the same sort of difference-maker as Soriano.

Take Minnesota -- and forget the rumors that the Twins are chasing Soriano. They did that last year, offering Texas a package of four solid prospects (which the Rangers rebuffed, of course). This year, sources with knowledge of the Twins' thinking say that Minnesota is far more interested in Lee than Soriano -- partly because they are not going to give up top pitching prospect Matt Garza, their first-round pick in 2005, in a Soriano deal.

If the Brewers make Lee available, the scorching hot Twins, who have won 34 of their past 42 games to catch the World Series champion White Sox in the AL Central and wild-card standings, likely would slide him into their lineup between Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, dropping Torii Hunter to sixth and Michael Cuddyer to seventh.