Since the Philadelphia Phillies declined Cliff Lee’s $27.5 million option for the 2016 season, virtually nothing has been heard from one of the most dominant pitchers in franchise history.
Through his agent, Derek Braunecker, Lee issued a brief statement in November of 2017, when his former teammate Roy Halladay tragically passed away in a plane crash. Lee appeared at the public memorial service held for Halladay at BayCare Ballpark, which a notable person employed by the team for much of his tenure told me earlier this year is the last time he’s seen or heard from the former All-Star.
When the Phillies celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their 2009 National League pennant winning season in 2019, Lee didn’t attend, despite being one of the key cogs on that team. Lee apparently told the Phillies that he had “a prior commitment.” We’ll see whether or not he appears at the 15th anniversary celebration in 2024.
In the meantime, Phillies Nation continues to reach out to Braunecker at least once a year to update fans on how he’s doing. Since receiving the statement after Halladay’s passing, there has been radio silence from Lee’s camp. Phillies Nation looked back on Lee’s iconic month of June 2011 a couple summers ago during “Cliff Lee Month,” but no request for comment was returned.
So every time there is any new sort of nugget surrounding the parts of five seasons that Lee played for the Phillies, it becomes newsworthy.
And on the latest episode of Audacy‘s “Unwritten: Behind Baseball’s Secret Rules,” Jimmy Rollins told quite the story to Ron Darling about a beef he and Lee had during the 2014 season over what music was being played in the clubhouse prior to games.
“This was my last year in Philadelphia, [I] got into it with Cliff Lee over music,” Rollins said.
“The music just happened to be by my locker, it was just center cut really. And it was open mic DJ. But you also knew, my job is to come in and get the pulse of the clubhouse. We come in and you’re playing some slow country music when you’re by yourself, that’s fine.
“But when we all get in there, our culture, we could have some hip hop, some reggaeton, some rock, you could have some upbeat country but it can’t be the slow — that does not make a clubhouse at all.”
Rollins says that Lee began to take exception to him changing what he deemed to be “slow country music,” and would then go out of his way to have that genre playing when the star shortstop entered the clubhouse.
“So as I found out later, he purposely came in and put on some country music. Because the day before … whatever happened, I don’t remember this all the way, because for me it wasn’t really anything much … but I came in, I look at the clubhouse and nobody’s boppin, nobody’s bouncing, it’s just like dead. At that point, I make a decision, like ‘OK, we need to change the music up.’ And I cut it off and was like ‘Hey, anybody have any suggestions?’ You know, so it’s open mic.
“But he came in, purposely put on the slowest country music he could find, knowing that I was going to come in and be like ‘Well this, we don’t go play baseball with that.’ So he does it, and he comes in and [I] cut it off. And he says something, I don’t even remember what he said, I wasn’t even really paying attention, it’s just what it was. And I was like ‘Man, how are you gonna decide the music, you’re on the injured list?’ I was just joking, like whatever.”
Rollins believed he was joking with Lee, who he had shared a clubhouse with for multiple seasons at this point. But Lee — on the injured list with what eventually turned out to be a left flexor tendon tear — didn’t find Rollins’ jab amusing.
“So, he took it personally. And the next day, he does it again. And this is after [my] second child was born, so the backstory is this is the first time that the baby slept and I had a great night’s sleep. And I’m walking in, and it’s funny, it’s like a sixth sense [where] ‘I feel something’s gonna happen today. ‘ You know, I just knew, you have that sense.
“So I came in, but I’m coming off the best night of sleep I’ve had in months with a newborn. And so I came in, I’m just smiling like ‘I got the best night of sleep ever.’ And I walk in and I’m like ‘Oh, here we go with this damn music again,’ you know just really not even thinking about it.
“So sure enough, I cut it off and Cliff comes running over and he’s barking. And this is towards the end of the year. At the moment, I’m thinking he’s going off and I have on flip flops. So I don’t say anything, I just gently and slowly put my shoes on, because you can’t do anything in flip flops. He was in the gym working out, getting pumped up, just lifting, which I found out about this part of the story later. He was prepared.”
Rollins, who had become the franchise’s all-time leader in hits earlier that season, was in the final guaranteed year of a three-year/$33 million contract. The Phillies held an $8 million club option on Rollins for 2015, and if they declined their half, Rollins could then exercise a $5 million player option to remain with the team.
However, Rollins had his eye on an $11 million vesting option for 2015, which would become guaranteed if he had 600 or more plate appearances in 2014. He knew that if he were to break his hand or someone get injured in a fight with Lee, he wouldn’t have enough plate appearances for the option to vest, and one way or another, he’d be making less than $11 million in 2015.
“And he comes over and he’s barking and he’s just going off. And the first thing that goes to my mind is if I finish the season on the DL, that’s $11 million down the drain. I have to finish healthy. They said ‘You finish healthy, your option is automatic.’ And so, that’s the first thing going through my mind. It’s like ‘Man, you’re making $33 million, and you got three or four years left. I’m coming up on an option. If I break my hand, it’s a wrap.
“… All these thing are going through your mind, but at the same time, your pride is like ‘Bro, you’re not about to keep doing this.’ This is 2014. We’re out of it. So I just put on my shoes, and I stand up and I’m like, OK, now I’m ready. You talking and barking, but I’m not dumb enough to sit there and do something, because anything could happen. I’m looking like, I’ve sparred before, but I’m like this is a total different weight class. I’m gonna have to try to get you down as soon as possible. And we’re right here in the locker room, you know anything can happen Ron.
“So long story short, I walk over to his locker and he still keeps barking and I was like ‘Talk, what happened?’ And he talked and was like ‘Well, you said this yesterday.’ And I was thinking in my mind, I’m like ‘You really took that to heart? You’re injured. You don’t have any authority over the radio, period.’ Everyone does, expect for the guys who are injured. If I’m injured, I walk in and ya’ll playing country and I’m not playing, there’s nothing I can do.”
One of the more productive players on the 2014 Phillies, who finished an underwhelming 73-89, was Marlon Byrd. Once a failed Phillies prospect, Byrd had returned to the organization that drafted him in the 10th round of the 1999 MLB Draft on a two-year/$16 million deal prior to the 2014 season.
Byrd homered 25 times and drove in 85 runs in 2014, so it’s safe to say that the 36-year-old’s voice carried some weight in the clubhouse at that time. And Rollins says that Byrd, 245 pounds, stepped in and took exception to how Lee was acting.
“So I remember Marlon Byrd after that, he got really upset at the time and was just like ‘All this stuff you’re saying to J, you’re not gonna say that to me.'”
In the end, things never came to blows. Rollins says he realized that Lee — limited to just 81 1/3 innings in 2014 following six consecutive seasons of throwing 200 or more innings — was upset that he was injured, and took his frustration out on one of his teammates for a few days. Lee would actually never pitch again after the 2014 season, with the elbow injury preventing him from pitching at all in 2015. Lee flirted with trying to make a comeback in 2016, but ultimately decided to retire instead, already making $12.5 million from his option buyout from the Phillies that season.
Needing to get to 600 plate appearances to trigger the $11 million vesting option, Rollins set aside his pride to make sure he stayed healthy. Rollins would finish the 2014 season with 609 plate appearances, triggering the option. Had he missed even a few games because of injuries sustained in a fight, he would have cost himself millions.
“For me, my pride and $11 million, yeah, take it,” Rollins said. “You can have all that pride, I’m gonna secure this bag. I ended up getting traded to the Dodgers, which was kind of something already in the works from the middle of the [2014] season. Not to the Dodgers, but a trade. And I was like ‘Aye, you got $33 million, three times of what I’m making, that’s guaranteed. I have an option, so you win. You win, bro.'”
Perhaps one day Lee will return for Alumni Weekend at Citizens Bank Park and he and Rollins will clear the air, if there’s any remaining bad blood between the two.
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