The move isn’t staggering, but the price tag it carried is.
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.
This is no surprise, but Phillies have officially declined Cliff Lee's 2016 club option. He will be paid a $12.5 million buyout.
— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) November 3, 2015
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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.