6/10 13:35: Buster Olney of ESPN tweets, “Heard this: The Mariners and Yankees have had zero conversations about Cliff Lee.”

Marc Carig of The Star-Ledger says that the Yankees have yet to hold internal discussions about acquiring players at the trade deadline, including the Mariners’ Cliff Lee.

6/9 22:21: Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports is confident that Yankees will land Lee, but when?  He says the only question is whether the Yankees will land him in a trade this summer or as a free agent this winter.

One rival exec said the Yankees will pursue Lee this summer because he’s a “Top of a rotation starter.”

6/9 14:25: According to Mark Feinsand a Yankees official told the New York Daily News that adding a starter is not in the Yankees’ plans as of now.

“There is no urgency to do anything with the rotation,” the official said. “That’s not an area that we’re focused on.”

The official said that only three players had already been made available by their teams, and while he wouldn’t name the players out of respect to those organizations, he confirmed that Lee was not one of them.

“Seattle may be doing its prep work by scouting a bunch of different teams,” the official said. “But it sounds like they’re doing more prep work than we are on this one.”

6/9 02:49: George A. King III of the New York Post says the Mariners believes the Yankees will make a run at left-handed pitcher Cliff Lee.

“They want one of the [Yanks' minor-league] catchers and [Eduardo] Nunez,” a person familiar with Seattle’s thought process said of any potential deal with the Yankees.

Catching candidates in the Yankees system include Austin Romine (Double-A), Jesus Montero (Triple-A). Other catchers in the organization include Gary Sanchez, J.R. Murphy and Francisco Cervelli who is already with the Big League club. The Mariners have multiple scouts watching the team’s prospects.

The Yankees are strong in starting pitching and are in an immediate need for a bat, but it wouldn’t hurt if they acquired Lee. Lee is a free agent at the end of the year, and is making $9 million this season. King believes that the Yankees will need the assurance that Lee would sign an extension if they were to trade Romine or Montero.

The Yankees are are scouting the Astros for a bat in the event they want to trade first baseman Lance Berkman. New York also may be a candidate for the White Sox Paul Konerko.