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Phillies Decline Options on Oswalt and Lidge

Bob Whalon Written by Bob Whalon, Monday October 24 2011
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The Philadelphia Phillies announced on Monday that they have officially declined to exercise the option on the contracts of pitchers Roy Oswalt and Brad Lidge for the 2012 season.

"While we will not pick up either of their options, we will remain in contact with representatives for both players about the possibility of bringing them back for the 2012 season," Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro jr. said in a statement.  "Brad and Roy both made significant contributions to the Phillies over the past several seasons."

Boy did they ever.

Both players were obtained in trades from the Houston Astros.  Lidge pitched for the Phillies for four seasons, while Oswalt was with the team for the last year and a half.  While Oswalt was great for the Phillies during the second half of the 2010 season, Lidge actually delivered only the second World Championship in franchise history.

Oswalt went 9-10 with a 3.69 ERA in 23 starts for the Phillies during an injury-plagued 2011 season.  He miss several games with a bad back and only started 23 games during the season.  But after he was acquired at midseason in 2010 he went 7-1 in 12 starts with a 1.74 ERA down the stretch.  

Lidge went 0-2 with one save and a 1.40 ERA in 25 relief appearances for the Phillies in 2011, but he didn't pitch until after July because of injury.  In his absence, Ryan Madson blossomed into a top-tier closer.  In four seasons with the Phillies, Lidge went 3-11 with 100 saves and a 3.73 ERA including a perfect 12-for-12 in the postseason.  The thing he will be remembered for most though was the 2008 season when he was a perfect 48-for-48 in saves, including the playoffs, and recorded the last out for only the second World Series Championship in the team's history.

The reason the Phillies are not picking the option for either player is that the team needs to shed salary to remain under the MLB luxury tax threshold amount of roughly $176 million.  The team's 2011 payroll was just under that amount.

Nine players on the Phillies current roster are under contract for a total of $106.95 million and $76.5 million of that is owed to just four players (Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley).  

After their surprising NLDS loss, the Phillies need to make changes to the roster.  In order to do that, they need the payroll flexibility they will receive by not paying Oswalt $16 million and Lidge $12.5 million in 2012.


 


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