Cliff Lee: Has He Been Worth the Price Ruben Amaro, Philadelphia Phillies Paid?

At the end of the day, Cliff Lee may not have been worth it after all.

I am pretty sure that Phillies fans would rather have him and lament his underperformance, than not have him and lament his success.

Of course, these are not the only choices that faced Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr., roughly 15 months ago when he made the decision to trade Lee to the Seattle Mariners in order to make room to acquire Roy Halladay from the Toronto Blue Jays.

Rather, there were four possible outcomes for Amaro and Lee at that time.

Amaro’s first option: spend tons of money to retain the services of Cliff Lee. This would lead to two possible outcomes: Lee pitches well and becomes a Philadelphia Immortal, or Lee pitches poorly (or even merely below expectations), and adds his name to the long list of semi-successful Philadelphia athletes burned in effigy by a demanding fanbase.

Amaro’s second option: Trade Lee away for prospects and bring in Roy Halladay. Again, this leads to two possible scenarios: Lee out-pitches Halladay, and Amaro and Halladay rue the day or Halladay out-pitches Lee and Amaro basks in the glory.

Now, as we all know looking forward from December 2009, Amaro actually had his cake and ate it, too. After trading Lee away for prospects so that he could trade prospects away for Halladay, Amaro brought Lee back the following season as a free agent in an effort to form one of the greatest pitching staffs of all time, along with Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

All’s well that ends well, right?

Except, something funny happened on the way to the forum.

Yes, the Phillies pitching staff is awesome and yes, the Phillies have the best record in baseball despite lackluster performances from their offense thus far this season.

But let’s take a closer look.

After all, it has not been Cy Young caliber Cliff Lee that the Philly Phaithful have seen this season; indeed, Lee has been far from the dominant pitcher of the last three seasons.

For example, Lee has already allowed more walks in 2011 than he did in all of 2010 and he is halfway home in the home runs department as well. Lee’s 3.94 ERA is below league average and his 1.263 WHIP is his highest since 2007.

And…he has a losing record at 4-5.

As Doctor Emmett Brown said to Marty when he found himself in the alternate 1985 in Back to the Future II, what the hell is going on here?

Thus far, it is unclear.

But the more important question is: Are we happy? And, strangely, at this point the answer would appear to be, “yes.”

As the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have discovered over the last 10 or 15 years, it is OK to waste tons of money as long as the team wins. So far, the Phillies have been winners and to Phillies fans, it feels as though Cliff Lee has been a part of that, whether he has been or not.

And as long as the Phils keep on winning, we will keep on loving Lee, which, at the end of the day, is certainly better than the alternative.

In Washington right now, Jayson Werth is earning way more than the Phillies ever would have paid him to get outhit by Mike Morse (who?) and Laynce Nix (what?). Certainly, no Phillies fans in their right mind wish we had Werth back right now, especially for the money he was demanding.

Lee, on the other hand, is a closer call since he is, in fact, pitching competently, and did not ask for a contract way out of sorts with his market value.

Thus, it is incredibly difficult to imagine him in another uniform, even assuming he would have put up a losing record and a subleague average ERA for whatever other team he would have signed with.

For now, we’re glad we have him, even if he does come with his foibles.

Nevertheless, put the emphasis on the “for now,” because if the Phils stop winning, all Cliff Lee will be is a mediocre pitcher collecting one of the biggest paychecks in baseball history. 

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com