Phillies' Cliff Lee back to 'normal'

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It will be difficult to have a handle on just how far Cliff Lee has come from his injury-riddled 2014 season until he takes the mound regularly in games every 5 days.

But after throwing a bullpen session on Day 1 of camp yesterday, when pitchers and catchers took part in the first official workout of the spring, Lee said he was back to his "normal" self.

"I feel normal," Lee said. "I don't know if that's good or what. But that's what I feel like."

The 36-year-old lefthander hasn't taken the mound in a big-league game since last July 31. If he's able to stay healthy this season, he could be gone before that date - Major League Baseball's trade-deadline day - comes back around this summer.

Like rotation mate Cole Hamels, Lee would be an attractive option for contending teams in need of a top-of-the-rotation starter this summer. The pitcher was evasive when trade questions came at him in a news conference yesterday afternoon, but the answers really wouldn't have mattered much, since Lee first must prove he's a healthy commodity.

Lee started only 13 games last season (4-5, 3.65 ERA) and made two trips to the disabled list for a left elbow strain.

"I don't feel like I have to prove anything to anybody," Lee said. "I hold myself to a pretty high standard. I hold myself accountable. I'm proven to me, so I don't really worry about having to prove [anything] to anybody else."

Lee put in the work this winter to regain his patented self-confidence. After being shut down in August, Lee resumed his throwing program in November and said he entered camp having thrown "probably 15" bullpen sessions on his own in Arkansas, where he spends his winter.

But it wasn't exactly smooth sailing from the get-go.

"When I first started throwing a little bit, it was not painful, but there was just kind of something there," Lee said. "And this was all new to me. I didn't really know what to expect . . . I just kind of started throwing and getting ready, and it never got worse. It's kind of progressively gotten better. So here I am now."

If Lee's performance in the coming months matches his self-assurance, teams such as the Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers could come calling for his services. Lee enters the 2015 season still owed $37.5 million on the 5-year, $120 million contract he signed before 2011, but is a proven pitcher (85-50 with a 2.89 ERA in 186 starts from 2008-13) with playoff success, too (7-3, 2.52 ERA in 11 postseason starts).

Lee will make $25 million this season (among pitchers, only Detroit's Justin Verlander and the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw will make more). He also has a $27.5 million option for 2016, which kicks in if he pitches at least 200 innings this year and avoids ending his second straight season on the DL with an arm injury. (The contract also includes a $12.5 million buyout.)

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was among the parade of Phillies officials who watched Lee throw yesterday.

"Every time he goes out there, it's more and more positive," Amaro said. "He's feeling good. Ball came out of his hand good, I thought."

While most of the eyeballs in camp were trained on the pitching mounds at the Carpenter Complex, where Lee, Cole Hamels, Jonathan Papelbon were among the pitchers to throw, the catchers also got their first official workouts in yesterday morning.

Among them was a former top prospect whom Ruben Amaro Jr. was uncertain would be ready for the start of camp: Tommy Joseph.

"[I'm] 100 percent, ready to go," Joseph said while suiting up for the day's work.

Joseph, 23, was limited to only six games in the final 4 months of the 2014 minor league season with a left wrist injury. He underwent surgery in early August.

But Joseph was cleared to begin baseball activities at the beginning of January and he has been taking batting practice for more than a month.

"In the last 2 to 3 weeks, it's been full blow," Joseph said of his hitting program.

Joseph, the key piece the Phillies got from San Francisco in the Hunter Pence trade, was hitting .282 with five home runs in 21 games at Double A Reading before suffering the wrist injury on May 9.

"It's been a long time," Joseph said, "but I'm good to go."

Chad Billingsley is scheduled to throw a bullpen session this morning in Clearwater.

The former Dodgers righthander has appeared in only two big-league games since the start of the 2013 season. Billingsley, 30, had Tommy John surgery in April 2013 and then another procedure to repair his right flexor tendon last June.

"I don't think there's much more you can fix in there," Billingsley joked yesterday.

Billingsley signed a 1-year, $1.5 million contract with the Phillies last month. Ruben Amaro Jr. said at the time he was hopeful Billingsley can join the rotation at some point in the first month of the season.

"It could be sooner; it could be later," Billingsley said. "One thing I know about the last 2 years is to not look too far ahead."

After the current projected Opening Day rotation (Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Aaron Harang, David Buchanan and Jerome Williams) got its work in, lefthander Mario Hollands was a part of a second group of pitchers to throw bullpen sessions. Hollands was placed on the 60-day DL in early September with a left elbow strain. Hollands went 2-2 with a 4.40 ERA in 50 games as a rookie in the Phillies' bullpen last season . . . Cody Asche, Darin Ruf, Ben Revere and Rule 5 pick Odubel Herrera are among the position players already in camp. The first full-squad workout is Tuesday. Position players aren't required to report until Monday . . . Former Phillies outfielder and broadcaster Gary "Sarge" Matthews will join the team as a guest instructor in camp in March.