MLB source hears #twins have offered OF Aaron Hicks (1st rnd, 08, 900 minor lg OPS) and top C prospect Wilson Ramos for C.Lee.
– Jeff Fletcher of AOL Fanhouse, per Twitter.
By rule, I’m skeptical about all trade rumors. But if there’s any truth to this report, you can probably forget about Lee joining the Mets.
Going by Baseball America‘s preseason ranking, the Mets don’t have a prospect in their system as promising as Hicks, who ranked #19 overall. The Mets’ top guy on that list, Jenrry Mejia, ranked #56 — only two spots ahead of Ramos, who has been reported as the object of the Mariners’ affection in talks with the Twins.
The Mets could certainly match or better that deal if it came down to it, but the cost is probably too high for a rental player. And a negotiating window for Lee, as I’ve discussed, should not be considered added value to any deal for the pitcher.
Tedquarters 
Even with the recent struggles of Santana and Pelf, all along I’ve always kind of felt the Mets might be better off targeting a middle of the rotation veteran type pitcher, as opposed to the Ace. I just don’t think an Ace, even Lee makes the Mets world series favorites to the point where they should go trading away piles of prospects.
With Beltran coming back the offense will get a big boost, and the addition of even a decent #3/#4 starter would then allow Takahashi to go back to the pen which I think would really help sure things up out there. I’ve seen Ted Lilly mentioned and I think he or a guy like him would be perfect.
Ted Lilly would be an excellent fit. Veteran, flyball pitcher with good control. We’d be a little lefty heavy heading into the playoffs, but who knows for sure how that will work out.
And the only way we could possibly top the Twins’ offer is by including both Mejia and Flores in a package, and that would be insane at this point.
Listening to WFAN on the way to the train this morning and the host was arguing that we should trade whoever it takes to get Lee bc the “Mets are not the Yankees and don’t compete every year.” But isn’t that why we need to keep our top prospects? So we have a strong core to build around each year and thus compete each year.