Take every reasonable assumption from the last six months, pack them up in a box and throw them off the Space Needle. Sound extreme? Live a day, a week, this season in Cliff Lee’s spikes before you answer that question.

Ever since his name surfaced in a trade rumors last December, Lee’s life is worthy of a narrative by Rod Serling. He took his first step into the Twilight Zone when the Philadelphia Phillies shipped Lee to the Seattle Mariners in a four-team, nine-player trade including two Cy Young Award winners (Lee and Roy Halladay).

“My initial reaction was disbelief and shock … I thought we were working out an extension with the Phillies,” said Lee. “I thought I was going to spend the rest of my career there … obviously this goes to show this is a business and you never know what’s going to happen.”

A nine-player trade? Four teams? What year is this, 1974? All we need now is a black and white television set, a transistor radio and newspaper to report the trade. Modern day baseball science fiction.

Instead of retreating into normalcy, Lee’s baseball life took another left turn in spring training when Major League Baseball suspended and fined him for five regular-season games after sailing one pitch over the head, and another behind the back of Chris Snyder. The ball never hit Snyder. It was a spring training game. The suspension was eventually overturned, but not after delaying the start of Lee’s season until April 30.

That’s about the same time baseball card collectors noticed something strange. Topps released Lee’s card with the Seattle Mariners. One problem: Lee was wearing a Mariners jersey and cap with one small oversight, a small black circular patch on his left breast with the initials “HK” on it. As Topps begins a search for a new card designer, Lee is searching for a shrink.

He is facing the very real prospect of being traded — again — for the third time since July 2008. Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports, citing unnamed major league sources, reported the Mariners will move Lee in 7 to 10 days.

He won the American League Cy Young Award in 2008 and was rewarded with a trade to Philadelphia. Lee was 4-0, including two World Series wins, in 2009 for the Phillies. Two months later he was sent to Seattle.

Anyone need a emotionally insecure Cy Young Award winning pitcher?

The Mets, Dodgers, Rangers and Twins are reportedly interested in Lee. Why wouldn’t the Mets be interested. Lee is a valuable pitcher, despite what recent history tell us about his relocations. After the trade, the suspension and the baseball card faux pas, he has still managed to compile a 6-3 record in 11 starts (2.39 ERA) with Seattle. His strikeout to walk ratio — are you seated — is 19 to 1 (76 K, 4 BB). Lee has pitched six or more innings in all 11 starts and has given up more than three earned runs once this season.

If a team would like to pick up his tab, Lee is available for $9 million. He will be a free agent at the end of the season. What does that mean for a contending team like the Mets? Dave Cameron at FanGraphs.com offers this perspective to potential suitors:

“The marginal value of a win last winter was about $4 million. Using that figure, we’d estimate that the remainder of Lee’s 2010 regular season to be worth about $14 million … I would estimate the marginal value of a win in July to be closer to $5 million, which would put Lee’s value at $18 million …”

How valuable is a win to a contender in September — and possibly October?

Imagination … its limits are only those of the mind itself. — Rod Serling