The new owners of the Texas Rangers are planning on increasing their payroll to have a chance at keeping left-handed pitcher Cliff Lee, according to Stephen Hawkins of the Associated Press.

“We’re fully prepared to bear the cost of that,” new managing partner Chuck Greenberg said Friday. “And do it with a smile because we’re here to win.”

Lee will be a free agent after this season, and he’s expected to get a big raise from his current $9 million club option for 2010. His new contract could be similar to the one C.C. Sabathia signed with the New York Yankees – 7-years for $161 million. The Yankees are expected to make a serious run at Lee when he officially becomes a free agent.

“We feel like we have a pretty good handle on how to keep this team together with Cliff as a part of it,” Greenberg said. “It’s nothing that frightens us, and we’d be real happy to go into next season with that group and the cost that we project.”

The Rangers have one of the lowest payrolls in the majors this season at around $55 million.

“Right now this roster is a lot more valuable than it is expensive, and that’s because of the relative youth and where players are in the economic system that baseball has,” Greenberg said. “Our payroll is going to rise on its own, it’s nothing we need to make a conscious decision to do. … To go out and say we’re going to be at this club’s level or that club’s level would be a foolish thing to do, because it would be an artificial number.”