Last night, Jon Heyman reported on his Twitter account that Cliff Lee left the Yankees and Rangers both in the dust, and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies. Pretty crazy stuff, considering everyone assumed (including me) it was only a matter of time before he buckled under the pressure and chose the Yankees' dirty money.
But he didn't. And it's pretty refreshing too. The Phillies offered him a contract somewhere in the range of 5 years for $120 million. The Yankees offered 7 years for $154 million and the Rangers offered 6 years for $138 million. He left a lot of cash on the table by not taking the Rangers or Yankees' offer.
So it looks like for Cliff Lee, it really wasn't about the money. Like I said, very refreshing to see that.
Predictably, everyone in New York is freaking out. It does look like some of the free agent magic has worn off for the Yankees. Which is great if you ask me. I think baseball is more interesting and enjoyable when it's not a certainty that every "big name" free agent gets eaten up by the Yankees or the Red Sox. Plus, I really, really hate the Yankees, so that helps.
On paper, the Phillies pitching staff of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels, and Cliff Lee is going to be awfully hard to beat, whether you're talking regular season or playoffs. But they don't play the games on paper of course, and injuries always seem to pop up in situations such as this. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
It's hard to fathom right now, but Cliff Lee was sent to the minors because he sucked so badly back on July 27th, 2007. Crazy.
[ ESPN / Deadspin ]
