The Phillies ended their run with Cliff Lee on Tuesday, opting not to pick up the final year of his deal and instead paying the veteran pitcher $12.5 million to buy him out and send him to free agency.
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Yes, $12.5 million is a steep price to pay someone for exactly zero days of work, but if the Phillies had picked up the final year, they would have had to pay Lee $27.5 million — an absurd number for a 37-year-old pitcher who missed all of 2015 with an elbow injury and made just 13 starts in 2014.
Lee signed a five-year, $120 million deal with the Phillies in 2010 and posted a 41-30 record with a 2.89 ERA in 106 starts over the course of the last four seasons.
