Travis Lee

[teej]

Technically, Travis Lee was never a Twin. Although selected by the club second overall in the 1996 MLB Draft Lee was declared a free agent on September 25th of that year by MLB's executive council. Rule 4(E) of the CBA dictated that teams must send their draft picks written contract offers within fifteen days of their selection. These offers could be negotiated afterword provided the initial offer arrived within the fifteen day window. Teams had skirted the rule for years often issuing verbal offers instead and the Twins had elected to postpone contract negotiations so Lee could focus on his preparations to play in the 1996 Olympics. Unlike past years however agents decided to challenge the enforcement of the rule. Scott Boras challenged on behalf of his clients John Patterson, Bobby Seay, and Matt White while Jeff Moorad challenged for Lee (1). All four were found to have not been tendered contract offers and were declared free agents able to sign with any team. After receiving 13 contract offers Lee chose to sign with the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks for a contract that included a bonus of ten million (1). 

Lee flashed potential in Arizona, finishing third in 1998 Rookie of the Year voting, but was shipped to the Phillies at the 2000 trade deadline along with three other players for Curt Schilling who proved vital to the D-backs 2002 World Series title. Lee played six more seasons after that. His career peaked in 2003 in Tampa as he slashed .275/.348/.409 for a WRC+ of 112 and led the Devil Rays in fWAR with 3.4. 

The Twins meanwhile received a compensation pick in the 1997 draft that they used to select catcher Matt LeCroy.

Sources Cited
1 "Travis Lee's 1996 draft saga and how an amateur's true value was briefly exposed" The Athletic April 16th, 2020 
Baseball Reference
FanGraphs

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[nicksaviking]

Yeah, Lee was pretty big blunder by the Twins. There were pre-draft rumors that he didn't want the Twins to draft him, they should have known to dot their i's and cross their t's when it came to dealing with him.

One of my favorite tone deaf quotes in Twins history from Mike Radcliff:

“I feel for the kid. I feel he’s pretty much uninformed,” Radcliff said of Lee, whom he thought was being led astray. “I don’t think he knows what he passed up.”

Ha, because he should have been honored to play for the 1.5M or so the Twins were going to pay him instead of the 10M the Diamondbacks gave him. Surely to this day Lee regrets his decision!

Prior to looking that up, I had remembered that as a Terry Ryan quote, but I guess I recalled that wrong.

[David HK]

I remember being really cheesed off at all that rigamarole with that guy. I was happy to cheer against him. 

He did have a strong rookie season, but then kind of petered out over the years. Reminded me of one of those guys who grows really fast and is the all-sport star in middle school, but then the growth stops, and the stardom goes away.