Explaining Cliff Lee and August trade waivers
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Explaining Cliff Lee and August trade waivers
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — The Phillies placed Cliff Lee on trade waivers, according to a report by Yahoo! Sports, which is merely standard procedure this time of year. Most teams place a majority of their players on waivers after Aug. 1 regardless if they intend on trading them or not.
Lee is likely to go unclaimed because he is owed approximately $95 million through 2015. If a team claims him, the Phillies can pull him back, negotiate a trade with the claimant, or simply allow that team to absorb his entire contract. It's highly doubtful anyone claims Lee for risk of inheriting a massive commitment.
The Phillies, a baseball source says, were not willing to assume any of Lee's remaining salary during trade talks before July 31. They were also asking for a bounty of top prospects in return.
Lee has a no-trade clause that prevents a deal to 21 teams without his consent.
For those reasons, any Lee deal now or in the wintertime, is dubious unless Ruben Amaro Jr.'s demands change.
"They told us those were rumors and there wasn't anything really in the works," Lee said Tuesday. "Ruben did tell me some teams did propose some stuff to him, but nothing that even made close to sense for the Phillies. I signed here to win here. Obviously nobody is happy the way this year has gone, but this is where I want to be. We still have a lot of talent."
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Maybe the Phils expect a massive decline in gate receipts next year. $8 of every ticket will go to pay Hamels if they draw 3M fans. $9 or so goes to Lee. The only reason the Phils have the sellout streak intact is that they were 95% sold out for this season on opening day. Next year it will be almost impossible to sell so many milti-game tickets to see a such a questionable product unless there is a drastic price cut.— Xyzzyx- I can only imagine how often Ruben must get straight up laughed at by other GMs on the phone. "So you want us to assume that entire awful contract for your 34yo pitcher with 2 wins in August, and you want HOW MANY of our top prospects as well?"
- If most teams put a majority of their players on trade waivers, why have the Phillies only put Lee on them?— dlscholt
- The article didn't say who else is on waivers. Actually, most of the roster is probably on waivers just to see who clears. Nothing to lose and it opens up trades until Aug 31. — scootch
- They need to put Amaro on waivers....How shrewd is this business. First they totally disrespect this guy by trading him after his amazing WS performance, now they are trying to get rid of him after he accepted less money to come here....Amaro sucks. Put the money this team is saving into a third baseman and keep this team together. A healthy team next year is a World Series contender. And you fans wanting to get rid of Howard and Utley are sick. Only in Philly do the fans/media want to get rid of their best players...
- If Lee finishes strong it only improves the Phils position to listen to trades. Howard is hurting the team now. He leaves toooooooo many men in scoring position with all his strikeouts so far this year. Would like to see Cloyd here to see what we have next year.— Pap
- Isn't Ryan Howard coming off a torn achillies? Also, isn't he this team's top run producer? Let me guess you were a Hunter Pence fan right? And as you saw he couldn't carry Ryan Howard's jockstrap when he was out injured. I could care less about seeing Cloyd since he has command issues. I'm an impatient fan, and I not interested in reverting back to the Ed Wade days...the sequel at Citizen's Bank Park. — PSU_Chuck
- TX got Dempster, but the rest of the staff isn't very good with the exception of...well no one. It would be nice to just unload Kward. Not going to happen unless...no it just wont happen.— lazyboy
- I agree Howard ,Utley , Rollins ,Papelbon, Blanton , Polanco , Mayberry , Schneider , Wiggington , get rid of this over paid garbage !!!— zogger
- rube's incompetence is matched only by his lack of integrity— warbiscuit
- I'd place the entire roster on waivers.— scootch
- Utley's only got 1 year left,he'd be claimed in a second. Howard though, certainly immovable.— JettMartinez
- Interesting as yesterday afternoon RAJ stated on radio he has no intention or desire to trade or move Cliff Lee.— thebaron
- Also get rid of Amaro now and get Gillick back if he wants to come out of retirement to fix this team !!! And fire Cholly now and bring Sandberg up to finsih the season to see what he can do to manage a major league team !! Then they can find out of he is what they want as the future manager !!!!— zogger
- Putting Howard on waivers, with his ridiculous contract and his diminishing skills would be a waste of time. It is possible that, no matter what Amaro tells Lee, that Amaro hopes Lee's trade value increases. Who knows. Maybe Olt was promoted by the Rangers so that Phillies scouts could observe him performing at the major league level, prior to the August 31st trade deadline. Stand by. I think there may be more moves in the near future.— ghost of callison
