One rival general manager believes the Rangers have become the favorite to land Cliff Lee.

In order to do that, they will likely need to part with Justin Smoak, currently their everyday first baseman. And sources say the Rangers’ reluctance to include Smoak in an offer for Lee is one of the biggest remaining barriers in their talks with the Mariners.

Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik is said to covet Smoak, a switch hitter who is well suited for the Mariners’ home ballpark.

The Rangers’ ongoing sale — through a bankruptcy process — is a significant element in the trade dialogue, sources say. Lee has roughly $4 million left on his contract for this season, which is almost certainly too rich for the Rangers to afford right now. The Mariners can pay the remainder of Lee’s salary to facilitate a deal, but they will ask for better players as a result. Smoak is likely to be one of them.

If the Rangers deal Smoak, 23, they will need to find a new first baseman in the near term. Smoak is hitting .208 with eight home runs and 34 RBIs in 69 games this year. He has started virtually every game at first since debuting on April 23.

Smoak, however, has struggled to hit left-handed pitchers; entering Thursday, he had a .143 batting average against them.

The obvious internal replacement for Smoak would be Chris Davis, who was the Rangers’ everyday first baseman prior to Smoak’s call-up. Davis, 24, has played first and third base at Triple-A Oklahoma City and is leading the team with a .354 batting average.

Many in the industry believe that Smoak is a superior player to Davis, although Davis has been the more productive hitter in the major leagues and is a better defender. One rival executive even suggested the Rangers would be “crazy” to trade Smoak.

First base is a relatively easy position for teams to fill externally, and the Rangers could invest more money there once their sale is complete. But Smoak will be affordable for years to come, so the team may prefer to keep him and allocate future free agent dollars toward pitching.

-Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi

I agree with the rival GM

According to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated.  Check out the tweet here: http://twitter.com/SI_JonHeyman. Story should be posted up on SI.com soon.

I'm sure he was just using it to recover from injury.  Nothing to see here.

Does anyone suspect that the player he was traded for might have been using PEDs as well?  His drop in power is really unexplainable.  Guess I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.  Just a thought.