When Derrek Lee signed a five-year, $65 million contract last April, he never thought the deal would be dwarfed by one of his teammates later in the year.
But the Cubs signed Alfonso Soriano for eight years and $136 million in November, making Lee seem underpaid by comparison.
Does he wish he had waited until after the season to negotiate?
“If I had waited one more year, I probably would have made less money because I broke my wrist,” Lee said with a laugh. “I was fortunate when I signed. Before you sign, you probably always think, `Well, I can make more later.’
“But you have to do what’s best for you at the time. I wanted to be in Chicago. That was the deal, and that was the end of it. I was happy with that. You just do what feels good for you and don’t worry about anything else.”
After a nightmarish season marred by the broken wrist that limited him to 50 games, Lee is primed to show he’s fully healed and ready to return to his 2005 form.
“I feel great,” he said. “My body feels great. My wrist feels good. My legs feel fresh. I’m ready to go.”
Lee tried to return from his broken wrist after only two months, hitting .227 from June 25 through July 24 with only one home run. The power was obviously not there, and Lee made a hasty retreat to the disabled list at the end of July.
“I just wasn’t healthy,” he said. “I came back and it was really painful, every swing. It came to a point where I felt like I wasn’t helping anything. I think it was smarter to go back on the disabled list until everything felt right.
“Looking back, I can see I rushed it. Now it’s good to go.”
Can Lee put up the kind of numbers he did in 2005, when he finished third in MVP voting?
“Yeah,” he said. “If I’m healthy and get out there every day, I think I can put up some good numbers.”
