Can the Phillies Bring Back Cliff Lee?

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Yahoo Sports is reporting that Cliff Lee's agent, Dareck Braunecker, does not want to re-sign with Seattle, and wants Cliff to explore free agency in the off-season, likely making him trade bait for the second year in a row.  While I'm sure Braunecker will screw up this negotiation for Lee as well, Yahoo's "Duk" asks us to find a convoluted way to bring Cliff Lee back to Philadelphia.  Well… it's not convoluted at all.

I know, move on from the whole Cliff Lee thing.  I get it.  However, our pitching is suspect at best.  Sure Halladay is as advertised, and Blanton is showing no ill effects from his oblique injury, but after that there are A LOT of question marks.  

What do the following numbers signify?  5.28, 5.70, and 7.61.

No, they are not the magnitudes of the recent earthquakes in Chile, they are the earned run averages of Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, and Kyle Kendrick.

We are over a month into the season, and none of those guys have give us any reason to think they will be reliable starters in the playoffs.   

J.A. Happ, our next best option, is on the DL.  

So how do we get Lee back?  I tackled the subject in my post on 4/13, "Is Pedro the Answer, Again?"  By the way, the answer to that question is "No."

I said:

 If it looks like we need help come July, and Seattle is struggling… let's send them back their prospects in exchange for one Clifton Phifer Lee.  It is doubtful Seattle will be able to resign him, and if they are not in contention it would make sense for both parties involved.


The Phillies have two prospects that Seattle likes (umm because they just traded them to us!) in Phillippe Aumont and Tyson Gillies.  It's real simple, give them back their prospects, hell we'll even throw in the corpse of Kyle Kendrick, and we take back Cliff Lee.

I get the whole "move on from Cliff Lee thing", but clearly we are going to need pitching help, and Lee will be the best available pitcher at the trade line, why is it unreasonable to think the Phillies would go after him?  Further, we have two prospects that Seattle is high on.  Some say making this move would require Ruben Amaro to admit he was wrong.  Well, didn't he already do that by trading Drabek?  In July, Drabek was untouchable.  In December?  Gone.  I think he's learning on the job that you can't have your cake and eat it too.  He's shown that he wants to play with the big boys, and sometimes that means sacrificing young talent and/or admitting mistakes.

I don't know if the scenario is likely, but it's certainly plausible.  After all, Amaro is shrewd.

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Kyle Scott
Kyle Scott
Kyle Scott is the founder and editor of CrossingBroad.com. He has written for CBS Philly and Philly Voice, and been a panelist or contributor on NBC Sports Philly, FOX 29 and SNY TV, as well as a recurring guest on 97.5 The Fanatic, 94 WIP, 106.7 The Fan and other stations. He has more than 10 years experience running digital media properties and in online advertising and marketing.
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30 Responses

  2. explain why it’s dumb? the phillies clearly have some pitching problems, he might be available, and we have prospects that they like?

  3. It’s nice to start the rumors early, but I’m not going to hold my breath. He’s gone.
    When does Lidge come back from the DL?

  4. lidge has been back since friday when he gave up a home run to the first batter he faced.
    but let’s be serious here, do you actually think the phillies will give back the prospects they got to replenish their farm system for ANOTHER RENTAL? Blanton came back last night and he did well, moyer isn’t doing bad, Happ will come back and he’ll be fine too. we’ll probably grab martinez again at the trade deadline and kendrick will go to the bullpen. that’s it.

  5. In theory, say this deal actually occurred after the all-star break, and Cliff Lee, as part of the deal, signs a deal with the phillies to extend his stay in Philly past this season…
    As a prelude, Ruben wouldn’t pull the trigger on this deal, particularly if it involved hyped farm guys like aumont and gillies, if it was for a rental player. Recall, he shipped Lee out to ensure we restocked the farm. Lee would have to stay for more than the remainder of the season.
    Anyway, if this deal occurred, and he was inked to a deal extending him past this year, that seals the fate of Werth – he’d have test free-agency. We’d have no money to fill nearly 10 spots for next season. On top of that, it’ll put a serious financial strain on keeping J-Roll and Victo in Philly too.
    Lee was shipped to ‘replenish’ the farms, and I don’t see Ruben trading what he wanted so badly.

  6. It’s Clifton, not Clifford. I too wish he could come back, and you just got me a little hopeful. Don’t do that again, we all know he’s not coming back, sad as it is.

  7. If Seattle continues to tank, you could very well try to get Lee back. Why not? If nothing more, they would be trying to dump his salary.

  29. great points altogether, you just gained a new reader.

    What would you recommend about your post that you
    made some days ago? Any positive?

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