It’s been confirmed by a number of sources that Cliff Lee has signed with the Philadelphia Phillies! Here are some tidbits:
- Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News is reporting that it’s a five-year deal.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post is reporting that five years will earn Cliff Lee about $100 million. However, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com says that the deal is “somewhere in the neighborhood of $120 million”.
- If all of this checks out, Lee left a ton of money on the table by not signing with either the Rangers or Yankees.
- Buster Olney reports that the Yankees final offer was a 6-year, $138 million deal with an option for a 7th year.
- Tim Brown from Yahoo! Sports says that with the vesting option, Cliff Lee could have made $161 million with the vesting option. “They were the high bidders.”
- This deal should all but guarantee that Joe Blanton will be shopped to get rid of the $17 million remaining on his contract.
It appears that MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan was the first to break the news on MLBTradeRumors.com, Jon Heyman confirmed it moments later.
This means that in his short tenure as Phillies GM, Ruben Amaro has acquired Roy Oswalt, Roy Halladay, and Cliff Lee… twice! How is that even possible? And does this mean that Cole Hamels is going to be the fourth pitcher in a starting rotation? Is that even fair?
In other news, some football streak ended recently…
