Lee's comments getting old for Yankees GM Cashman

Nothing like a little back-and-forth between New York and Philly baseball teams, but this time it's not the Mets and Phillies. It's the Yankees.

Seems some in the Yankees organization bristled when Cliff Lee said among the reasons why the Yankees were his third choice this offseason behind the Phils and Texas was because "some of the Yankeee guys are getting older."

"Some of our core guys that we have relied on have gotten up there, but we have a group of young players that we're excited about," Yankees GM Brian Cashman responded, according to the New York Post.

"All we care about is being called champions. You can say anything else you want about us. When you call us old, that's fine."

Lee, 32, went for less money and fewer years in his shocking decision to choose the Phillies as a free agent.

"The Yankees can do anything at any moment to improve and they're not afraid to go do things," Lee said last week on WIP (610-AM). "That was part of the decision-making process, too, but I felt like with what the Red Sox had done and it seems like some of the Yankee guys are getting older, but I liked the Rangers."

Cashman said he has "clearly made the effort to get younger." The Yankees have let Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon leave, and signed Russell Martin so Jorge Posada can move full time to designated hitter.

Lee never raised the issue of age in conversations with the Yankees, Cashman said.

"It doesn't really matter," Cashman said. "It was a marriage that was not meant to be. That's life." *