Everyone thought that the New York Yankees pulled off something of a coup this offseason when they traded for a promising pitcher named Michael Pineda from the Seattle Mariners. Pineda was white hot for the Mariners for most of last season before tailing off towards the end. Still, the Yankees acquired the 23-year old in exchange for catcher Jesus Montero, who sucks at catching.

After getting rid of A.J. Burnett (thank god), Pineda was penciled in towards the middle of the rotation. But now, he may be penciled out, according to Andrew Marchand of ESPNNewYork.com.

“To answer some questions: I think there is a better chance than not that Pineda is in rotation, but it is not certain yet,” Marchand tweets.

Yikes! The Yankees haven’t made a big deal about it, but apparently his velocity is down. Some are speculating that he may begin the season in the minors to get himself right.

If that’s the case, this is not what the Yankees envisioned when they made the move. But, if a stint in the minors is what he needs and he comes back to early-2011 form, then all will be right with the world.

The New York Yankees have been a bit quiet this offseason. That is, until now. It seems to have started yesterday, and now the news just keeps on coming.

It was reported on Friday that the Yankees had agreed to a trade with the Seattle Mariners. They would be sending catcher Jesus Montero and right hander Hector Noesi to Seattle in exchange for rookie phenom Michael Pineda and prospect Jose Campos. Pineda had a 3.74 ERA last year and will most likely be the Yankees No. 2 behind C.C. Sabathia.

Then, we hear that they are after Hiroki Kuroda, the 37-year old right-hander whose price had supposedly come down. And yes, they got him. They agreed to a one-year deal worth between $10-$11 million. His 3.45 ERA over the past four seasons should help the Yanks rotation tremendously.

So after all this, the Yanks still need another bat. Montero was penciled in as their DH this season, so they’ll need to replace that. And according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com, the Yankees are turning their attention to free agent Carlos Pena. Pena was damn good a few years ago with the Tampa Bay Rays, but hit just .225 last season. However, he did still hit 28 bombs so his power could still be there. It’s not like they’d need a ton from him anyway with that lineup.

Dutch-born Greg Halman, an outfielder for the Seattle Mariners in 2010 and 2011, was stabbed to death Monday in Rotterndam. His younger brother was arrested in connection with the crime.

“A 24-year-old died this morning in a stabbing and we have arrested the 22-year-old brother of the victim,” a police spokesman told Rueters.

Halman played baseball in a number of countries including France, Germany, Spain, Poland, and Italy before ultimately signing with the Mariners when he was just 16 years old. After six years in the minors, he was called up to the majors last year.

He played in 35 games for the Mariners last season, scoring seven runs and holding a batting average of .230 before being sent back down.

Known for his infectious smile and passion for the game, Halman had a tattoo of a baseball that looked like a globe with the words “My World” next to it. He also wanted to share his love of the game by encouraging European youth to play.

“Greg was passionate about the game of baseball and generously gave of himself to share his passion with others in an attempt to help grow the sport’s popularity across Europe. He will be sorely missed,” said Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

At a recent Seattle Mariners game, some kid decided to show off his “Thriller” moves a la Michael Jackson. He looks maybe eight or nine years old, but he dances well beyond his years.

Maybe the Mariners just aren’t entertaining enough and they’ll have to keep bringing this kid back so they can sell some tickets.

Kudos to the camera operator who was also probably bored with baseball and decided to find some real entertainment. This kid is either super excited that he’s now a YouTube sensation, or super mortified. Maybe a little of both.

The Seattle Mariners have finally called up their top prospect. 2B Dustin Ackley has been promoted from Triple-A Tacoma and many think it’s about frickin’ time.

Ackley was the No. 2-overall selection in the 2009 MLB draft and has been hitting .300 with a .418 on-base percentage and .487 slugging percentage through his first 326 at bats down in Triple-A. Yeah, it was time to bring him up.

Don’t expect much power out of the dude, especially in Safeco Field. But he’s probably worth snagging in your fantasy leagues. Especially if you play with a bunch of people who don’t know most players not named Pujols or Halladay.

Yet another team in another town has come to the conclusion that Milton Bradley isn’t worth it. In the past, he’s been incredibly productive, making it worth someone’s while to keep him around and deal with his myriad of antics. But, he’s just not anymore and hence the Seattle Mariners have designated him for assignment.

It looked like Bradley would hang around after Ryan Langerhans got designated for assignment when the M’s called up Mike Wilson. But the roster re-tooling wasn’t done as they also brought up Carlos Peguero.

At that point, you look at Bradley’s .218 batting average and the decision gets quite easy.

If Bradley was a high character guy and a veteran leader on the team, maybe this doesn’t happen. But he’s not and we know he’s not. This is a guy that was arrested for a felony not too long ago for throwing a glass at his wife.

Someone will probably roll the dice on Bradley, but I don’t see anyone making him an everyday starter unless everyone on the team got hurt at the same time.

OTR wants to let everyone know that if you are friends with a Mariners fan or anyone that lives in the greater Seattle area, you just maybe just let them be this week. It’s a time when those in Seattle really need to spend time with close family and loved ones, and really do a lot of reflecting on the Milton Bradley era.

We sincerely apologize to our reader(s) for not passing along this information sooner. It’s our job to get you this kind of pertinent information in a timely fashion so that you can just go about your day already.

Seattle Mariner Milton Bradley is having some marital issues, but it’s not as bad as others have reported. We saw a report on Rotoworld that said that, during New Year’s Eve, Bradley threw a glass coffee table at his wife. That would have been horrific and made him an awful person. But, it didn’t happen.

Actually, Bradley grabbed a glass off of the coffee table and threw it at his wife’s head. See? That’s not nearly as bad. And, it was during an argument, so one could certainly empathize.

“Milton cursed and yelled at me for approximately five minutes and then he grabbed a glass from off the coffee table and threw it directly at my head from across the room,” his wife Monique said in a complaint for a restraining order (she’s seen him play baseball before and probably thought there was no way he’d be able to hit her in the head with the glass).

Photo Caption: No way in hell this guy would ever hit his wife.

“The glass shattered on my head and I started to bleed,” she said, clearly bellyaching. “As soon as Milton saw me bleeding, he started crying and begging me to forgive him. He stated that he lost it and that he would kill himself if I left him. I did not know what to do.”

Monique is filing for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. She could probably just tell the courts that she married Milton Bradley and they’d just understand and grant her the separation.

Sometimes running OTR can be tough. Sometimes I don’t have time to post everything I want to in a given amount of time. Other times – like now – I’m sitting at the computer trying to find something good to post, but can’t really find anything I like.

A big “thank you” to everyone’s favorite MLB knucklehead Milton Bradley.

According to King 5 Sports in Seattle, Bradley has been arrested on a felony in Southern California.

“@KING5Seattle has learned #Mariners outfielder Milton Bradley has been arrested on a felony in Los Angeles County,” they tweeted.

Photo Caption: Milton appreciates the difficult job that umpires have.

There are no more details right now, but we are awfully curious what he did this time. This is a guy with a history of borish behavior. He tore his ACL while being restrained by his manager Bud Black in 2007 when he was with the Padres. In 2008, he impressed everyone, when he showed Kansas City Royals announcer Ryan Lefebvre that he wasn’t nobody’s punk, and stormed up to the press box following a game because he didn’t care for some comments that Lefebvre made.

No. Body’s. Punk.

This shoooould be enough for the Mariners to avoid paying him the $12 million he’s owed next season (seriously? Who signed him to that god-damned contract?).

So we’ll keep an eye on this and will be sure to pass along any new info when we get it. And when we say “when we get it,” we mean “when we get it and feel like posting it.” You’ll be alright.

UPDATE: Just saw this tweet from Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times: “Milton Bradley was arrested at home at 10:40 a.m. He was later released on $50,000 bail. Said to have made threat vs. unidentified female.”

Let’s preface this with the fact that when we first saw the headline on this report, we thought there was much more to this rumor. It’s not ridiculous to think it could happen, but it’s based mostly on the fact that two New York Mets minor leaguers were scratched just before game time.

Ruben Tejada and Fernando Martinez were both scratched from the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons’ lineup about 10 minutes before their game on Friday. This prompted speculation that one or both were being moved in a trade, with sources indicating that the Mets were chatting with the Seattle Mariners.

But, Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com says that they were bumped from the lineup, not because they are being traded, but because they are being promoted. This leads to another round of speculation, which might indicate that either Luis Castillo or Jeff Francoeur (or both) are being traded to Seattle. One would have to think that because sources tell Rosenthal that neither of the kids was put on waivers, so they can’t be traded.

The rumor is that the Mets would be getting Chone Figgins, who was being shopped at the trade deadline. Seems like Seattle went out and had a fire sale after acquiring top names like Cliff Lee and Figgins in the offseason. Obviously, those moves didn’t translate to anything but frustration.

Stay tuned.

The Philadelphia Phillies took yet another hit to their infield when they had to shelve first baseman Ryan Howard on the 15-day DL. They brought up John Mayberry, Jr. from Triple-A, but they needed to do something else.

That something else was trade for Mike Sweeney from the Seattle Mariners. When Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik saw the 215 area code on his phone, he probably knocked over an assortment of small house pets and potted plants in an effort to make sure he got to pick it up. Thinking back to the trade that got them Cliff Lee, he was probably drooling over what he could do to the Phils next.

So yeah, the Phils got him to send them Sweeney in exchange for a player to be named later (Roy Halladay?) or cash considerations. The 37-year old is hitting .263 with six home runs this year, which means he’ll be the exact same thing as having Howard in the lineup.

The Seattle Mariners have optioned 1B Justin Smoak to Triple-A Tacoma after he hit .163 with two home runs and five RBI’s for the club. Smoak was the prize of the Cliff Lee deal, but has been a bust as a rookie this year. He’s hit just .198 on the season.

So far for the Mariners, Smoak has just seemed overmatched at the plate.

This comes amidst a flurry of roster moves for the M’s. They also sent Milton Bradley to the DL. In addition, they called up Sean White and Matt Tuiasosopo.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post has been all over this story lately. Now, he is reporting that the Seattle Mariners have agreed on a deal with the Texas Rangers to send them Cliff Lee. Wow.

According to the Rotoworld.com posting, Sherman says that the Mariners will get Justin Smoak, reliever Mark Lowe and three other players.

Details aren’t wildly available right now, but we sure hope Texas knows what they are doing. They have a 5.5 game lead right now in the AL West and they must think that the addition of Lee makes them a contender.

If not, they must know that they can sign Lee long term. Otherwise this might just be a waste of their time and money.

UPDATE: Mariners also acquire RHP Blake Beavan, RHP Josh Lueke and 2B Matt Lawson.

With the Texas Rangers quickly falling out of the Lebron James sweepstakes, they have turned their focus on landing Seattle Mariners pitcher Cliff Lee.  And according to a little blurb on Foxsports.com, the Rangers have become the favorite.

“One rival general manager believes the Rangers have become the favorite to land Cliff Lee,” Ken Rosenthal writes.

One reason a deal between the Rangers and Mariners hasn’t happened yet, is the reluctance of  Texas to give up rookie first baseman Justin Smoak.  Another would be the $4 million that Lee is still owed this year, an amount that might be too much for the bankrupt Rangers to pay.  The Mariners could pick up the $4 million, but Smoak would most likely have to be part of the deal.

Other teams that are coveting Lee are the Twins, Mets, Yankees, Rays, Reds, Dodgers, and the team that stupidly traded him away in the offseason, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Several baseball executives tell Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com that the Seattle Mariners are ready to trade LHP Cliff Lee right now, despite what GM Jack Zduriencik has said recently.

“We’re just going to try to win baseball games,” Zduriencik said Friday. “I’m not a fool. But in the same sense, who the heck knows? We’ll see what happens.”

“I’m not willing to throw in the towel just yet – our pitching is too good,” Zduriencik said.

That doesn’t seem to be the case. The sources that spoke to Rosenthal are from teams that have called the Mariners with interest in Lee. One source predicts that Lee will be moved in the next 7-10 days.

Lee is 6-3 with a 2.39 ERA this season. He has struck out 76 and walked only four. Sources tell Rosenthal that the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers and Texas Rangers are the most likely landing spot. Others think the Minnesota Twins have the inside track.

This means that no one has any clue and we’re all just guessing.

A league source tells Jack Curry of YES Network that the Philadelphia Phillies “would love” to get Seattle Mariners LHP Cliff Lee back.

“Spoke to baseball official who has regular contact w Phils. He said they are itching to add a starter and would love to get Cliff Lee back,” Curry tweets.

We aren’t shocked by this. It came out recently that the team is interested in bringing Pedro Martinez back. And one doesn’t have to look far to see that Jamie Moyer, Kyle Kendrick and Joe Blanton are just not getting it done in the starting rotation right now. Only an idiot would think that this team is set as far as starters.

But could they really undo the trade that had everyone in the Delaware Valley scratching their heads? What would Seattle want? Phillippe Aumont back? Hahaha! We doubt it. He came to Philadelphia as a starter turned reliever. Then the Phils made him a starter again. Then he started the year in Double-A and was then demoted to Single-A a week ago. Does this sound like a recipe for a successful MLB starter?

Don’t even throw out the name Dom Brown. Not happening. The one name that keeps popping up to us is…Jayson Werth. The Seattle Mariners have some of the worst offensive statistics in all of baseball and Werth might be the kind of player that would get that deal done. And both Lee and Werth are rent-a-players who are up after this season. Seattle knows they won’t sign Lee, but what about the Werthquake?

Just a thought.

The Seattle Mariners recently unloaded a heap of minor league crap to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for LHP Cliff Lee. Good deal, right? Well, not really.

The Mariners still can’t buy a win despite having some excellent pitching. They can’t hit and are in last place in the AL West at 13 games behind division leader Texas. And, they still only have Lee on a one-year deal and he isn’t expected to come back with the Mariners.

And now, George A. King III of the New York Post says that the Mariners are prepared for the Yankees to make a run at Lee.

“They want one of the catchers and (Eduardo) Nunez,” a person familiar with Seattle’s thinking told King.

We’re guessing they want either Austin Romine, Jesus Montero or Francisco Cervelli.

The Yankees would probably rather have a bat, but if the M’s are offering Cliff Lee…why not?

King says that the Mariners are currently scouting the Yankees entire organization heavily to prepare for the inevitable inquiries about Lee. We’ll see what happens, but if the Yanks get Lee, just end the season already.

The Seattle Mariners could definitely use some help, as evidenced by their current residence in the basement of the AL West. And they may get it soon as pitcher Erik Bedard recently pitched a simulated game. Bedard is recovering from a shoulder injury and only threw 30 pitches.

After the session, Bedard said he didn’t feel that good.

“It’s a matter of building up strength and stamina at this point to where he doesn’t need to be down for four days after throwing a lot of pitches,” said Jason Phillips, who caught Bedard. “It is almost like this is the first week of spring training for him.”

Adam Moore was one of the batters who faced Bedard and said he seemed to have his stuff.

“He looked really good,” Moore said. “There was a lot of life on the fastball, the curveball was good and the changeup had good sink and cut.”

Of course, if Bedard were really to help the Mariners, he’d be a world-class hitter. The M’s desperately need someone who is good at hitting a baseball. But, as we all know, another sharp arm in the rotation can’t hurt.

This wouldn’t be entirely shocking, but it would be sad if the Seattle Mariners had to let go of their best player of all time (sorry, Jay Buhner). Larry Larue of the Tacoma News Tribune speculates that Ken Griffey, Jr. will probably lose his DH spot in the lineup by the end of the week and his roster spot by the end of the month. He’s 41-years old, has no bat speed anymore and is hitting a paltry .205. Yeah, that’s bad.

It’s also that Griffey just doesn’t seem to care anymore. During games he’ll go into the clubhouse, text friends and watch the game on television.

Photo Caption: The Mariners would be thrilled to see Griffey in a Reds uniform.

Larue spoke to two young Mariners who both admire the heck out of Griffey.

“He was asleep in the clubhouse,” one player said. “He’d gone back about the fifth inning to get a jacket and didn’t come back. I went back in about the seventh inning – and he was in his chair, sound asleep.”

That’s leadership! The second player tried to explain whey that sometimes happens.

“He doesn’t sleep well at night, he’s away from his family, he’s comfortable in the clubhouse,” he said. “They could have awakened him …”

Yeah, well, either way. It just looks bad. And when you are sniffing the Mendoza Line with no home runs, the clock is ticking. The Mariners have no offense whatsoever and just fired their hitting coach because of it. Griffey seems to be next.

The Seattle Mariners needed someone to blame for their miserable 11-19 performance that has landed them in the basement of the American League West. And that person was hitting coach Alan Cockrell.

The Mariners have an AL-worst .617 OPS and have lost eight straight games. They have also scored less runs than 28 of 30 MLB teams. Yeah, that’s not good. But, is Cockrell really to blame? Some of the players don’t think so.

“Let’s not go there,” said Ken Griffey, Jr. “I have no comment.”

Mike Sweeney isn’t keen on the move either.

“It’s brutal,” Sweeney said. “There are a lot of guys in here who deserve to get fired before him.”

So this clearly was not a popular decision in the clubhouse, but since you can’t fire the whole under-performing lineup, the coach is the one to go whether it’s right or wrong. The Mariners need to get it going because I picked them to win the AL West.

Milton Bradley is at it again. Ability has never been the issue with this guy; being a royal douchebag has. A source tells MyNorthWest.com that Bradley left the Seattle Mariners last night during a game.

According to the source, Bradley got all pissy after striking out looking in the sixth inning with the bases loaded (we’d be pissy too). He started to give the umpire some crap from the dugout when Don Wakamatsu told him to knock it off, that he’d handle the umpire. So Bradley said that someone needed to say something to the ump, and that he’d be the one to do it if need be.

A few minutes later, Bradley did what everyone else would do in that situation. He walked over to the manager and said “I’m packing my stuff. I’m out of here.” Good stuff, Milton! You tell ‘em!

Despite all of this, general manager Jack Zduriencik says that Milton is still on the team.

“Milton is part of what we’re doing,” he told MyNorthWest.com this morning. “Anything that happens between a manager and his players should be handled internally. Sometimes tempers flare over the course of a season. Wakamatsu thought it was time for Milton to come out.”

Enjoy your rent-a-player, Seattle. Hopefully, Phillippe Aumont doesn’t amount to much (although he’s been spectacular in the Phillies farm system recently) because it looks like the Seattle Mariners won’t be keeping Cliff Lee beyond this season. His agent, Darek Braunecker, says that he doesn’t foresee a deal getting done that would keep him in the 206 area code.

“We’re five months away from free agency,” said Braunecker, “so I think that’s the most likely scenario at this point. We’ve not really had any significant discussions with Seattle. I wouldn’t anticipate a deal [with the Mariners].”

Lee is 31-years old and was a Cy Young Award winner in 2008. In 2009, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies from the Cleveland Indians and all he did was absolutely dominate in the post season.

Lee is expected to be the most coveted pitcher in free agency following this year and it’s probably not even close.

The Mariners will finally get to see their big offseason acquisition play this Friday.  After pitching six-shutout innings against the AAA Tacoma Rainiers, Cliff Lee will fly to Kansas City to join the big-league club Monday and then make his first start for the Mariners on Friday against Texas.

Lee has been out since early spring training with a strained abdominal muscle from laughing so hard about the Phillies rotation that includes Kyle Kendrick and Jamie Moyer.

“I felt good. I was throwing strikes,” Lee said in post-game audio supplied by the Mariners. “I’d like to have a little more command, but I’m sure that will come.”

The lefty said “the ab thing is a non-issue” and that he could have gone longer Sunday, but was taken out after six innings just to be safe.

“Everything felt comfortable,” he said. “My curve ball wasn’t as good as I wanted, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. … Other than that, fastball, change-up, cutter, it was all right where I wanted it to be.”

Seattle is currently 9-10 and 2.5 games back of the AL West leader Oakland Athletics.

The Seattle Mariners have put starting pitcher Cliff Lee on the 15-day disabled list with an abdominal strain. Lee has been battling this issue for most of the spring, and it’s not surprising that the Mariners would be careful here.

The good news for Seattle is that it’s not shoulder or arm trouble. We’d have to think that they really just want to get him right and will sacrifice a few starts in the beginning of the season in order for him to give them 100% the rest of the way. So, Lee gets sent to the Mark Prior List and he’ll like it.

With a healthy Lee and King Felix in Seattle, the Mariners have probably the best 1-2 punch in baseball. Throw in the fact that they could get Erik Bedard back in June (he’s not the greatest, but we love him as a #3), and the Mariners could spell trouble for teams late in the year. Would you want to face King Felix, Lee and Bedard in a best-of-five series to open the playoffs? We wouldn’t either.

Seattle Mariners’ pitcher Cliff Lee was given a five-game suspension a couple weeks ago for throwing at the head of Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Chris Snyder. He is in the appeals process, but his hearing was just postponed because all parties could not be in attendance.

“It’s just one of those things you have to deal with,” Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik said. “We’ll wait for them to reschedule and and deal with it when it comes time to do so. As far as how this impacts us, we would have liked to have a resolution one way or the other, but it doesn’t appear it will go that way so we’ll just have to go with it for now.”

The suspension coupled with his lower abdominal injury have Lee off to a bumpy start this season. As it is now healthwise, he probably won’t make his first start and the injury has Seattle worried enough that they are rumored to be looking for pitching help.

Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse says that the Seattle Mariners are looking for some pitching help since newly acquired Cliff Lee has an abdominal strain. This is bad news because the strain was only supposed to cause him to miss one start. Would they be looking to add a pitcher if they only had to cover for one start?

“Cliff Lee injury has #Mariners strongly considering acquiring a starting pitcher, perhaps a free agent or someone released elsewhere,” he tweets with appropriate use of hashtags.

The Mariners could always call Chad Gaudin and/or Jarrod Washburn if need be. They are free agents and don’t seem to be all that busy. Also, the Detroit Tigers are believed to be shopping Nate Robertson, but we aren’t so sure that the Mariners would want to invest even more through trades.

Then again, it depends on how badly Cliff Lee is really hurt. Oh, and let’s not forget he’s still facing a five-game suspension for throwing at Chris Snyder’s head.

Seattle Mariners pitcher Cliff Lee is still feeling soreness in strained lower abdomen after a short throwing session in Peoria, AZ, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

“I still feel it,” Lee said, according to The Associated Press. Although, he does say that the injury is getting better.

“It doesn’t look very good,” he told the Seattle Times. “I mean, I just played catch today. It’s getting pretty close to decision time and I don’t really know where I’m at just yet. If everything were to go perfectly from here, there would maybe be an outside chance I could do it, but I don’t know. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

There is a good chance that Lee misses his first start of the 2010 season. And you can add to that the fact that he is currently appealing a five-game suspension that was handed down after he threw at Chris Snyder from the Diamondbacks.

We’ll see what happens, but Lee is definitely off to a bumpy start in Seattle.

It’s been a rough spring for the newest Seattle Mariner Cliff Lee. First he gets suspended for five games after throwing at Chris Snyder’s head, and now he has an abdominal strain that could bump him from his first start. Larry Stoner says it’s not too serious, however.

“Mystery solved: Cliff Lee has a right lower abdominal strain and was treated in Seattle today by team doctor Edward Khalfayan,” he tweets.

Lee is scheduled to be re-examined in seven days, but M’s general manager Jack Zduriencik was optimistic, saying, “We are hoping for a speedy recovery and look forward to him returning.”

We think he misses his first start, if nothing else just they don’t push it. It’s a long season and they’ll need him for way more starts than just one or two in April. We’re curious how this will coincide with his suspension. If he’s not on the DL and doesn’t make his start, does that count as serving his suspension? Or does he have to serve those when he’s completely healthy and how would anyone know?

Lee is currently appealing the suspension, but good luck with that.

Maybe the Philadelphia Phillies knew what they were doing when they shipped Cliff Lee out of town. Ok, not really. But the Mariners’ Lee did get suspended for the first five games of the season after he threw at Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Chris Snyder on Monday.

Of course, Lee can appeal, but we don’t see him winning. He’ll begin serving his five-game suspension on Opening Day April 5th. This isn’t major, but the Mariners will have to do some shuffling of the rotation early on.

This would be a much bigger deal if he was an everyday player and would miss five games. Lee will only miss his first start.

Seattle Mariners stud Cliff Lee underwent a minor procedure on his foot, according to some dude on Twitter that gets press releases from the Mariners.

“Cliff Lee had successful surgery to remove a loose spur in his left foot, according to M’s release,” Ryan Divish tweets.

Lee pitched deep into the 2009 season and there were never reports of any foot issues, so this is probably a non-issue. He was a stud last year for the Phillies and will probably improve upon his 3.22 ERA in the pitcher-friendly Seattle stadium.

The Phillies, meanwhile, got the better end of the Cliff Lee trade by getting a tall Candian dude who is being groomed as a reliever and already has arm trouble.

Seattle Mariners left-hander Erik Bedard (actually he’s a free agent) could be out another 3-5 months after exploratory surgery on his throwing shoulder in August showed an inflamed bursa and torn labrum, according to Ryan Divish’s Twitter page.

“M’s trainer Rick Griffin on Bedard: It was a 10-12 month program and he’s at about seven months now. He has a ways to go,” Divish tweets.

This might help explain why he’s drawn such little interest in the free agent market. At best he’ll be ready by late April but we doubt that. It’s looking like he could be ready by May.