Myers Says Phillies Will Not Offer New Contract

Friday, November 6, 2009

By John R. Finger
CSNPhilly.com

The Phillies haven't wasted any time making moves this off-season. Less than 48 hours after their title defense ended in the sixth game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, general manager Ruben Amaro announced that the team has exercised a $9 million option on ace lefty Cliff Lee.

More notably, right-handed pitcher and former first-round draft pick, Brett Myers, has been told the team will not offer him a new contract.

“I officially won’t be a Phillie next year,” Myers told Jim Salisbury of the Inquirer after a meeting with Amaro.

Myers said he will file for free agency on Friday and would be driving to his home in Jacksonville, Fla. on Saturday.

“ I’m not as disappointed as I thought I’d be,” Myers told Salisbury. “I don’t know if it’s because other things are in front of me, blurring my vision. I’m packing and getting ready to drive home.

“It just didn’t hit me as hard as I thought it would. I kind of felt it coming. I was just like, ‘OK, thanks for putting up with my (stuff).’ He thanked me and wished me and my family well. I’ll miss the guys on the team and the fans who have supported me. Hopefully I’ll be playing against the Phillies and when I do I want the roughest treatment the fans can give me – when I’m pitching. I’m an opposing player – you have to give it to me.”

During a meeting with the local press to talk about the team’s off-season plans, Amaro said Myers will be an attractive player for a lot of teams because of his ability to be a starter or a reliever.

“One of the beauties of Brett is that he can pitch as a starter or a reliever. It’s hard to tell because he had a very strange season with his hip situation,” Amaro said. “I think we kind of have a split camp on what his best role would be. There are some of us who think he would best be used in the rotation, and there are some of us who think he would be better in the bullpen.

“But that’s an advantage that Brett has if tests the market. He has the ability to do both.”

Of course if pitching were all there was to Myers, it would be one thing. The truth is, Myers is also a reality show waiting to happen with bubbling controversies always a breath away.

Off-the-field issues aside, Myers heads into free agency as a pitcher that only can be categorized as failed promise (or maybe overvalued by the Phillies). Drafted in the first round (12th pick) of the 1999 draft, Myers never got close to winning 20 games like promised. Sure, he started three straight Opening Day games, but that was often out of necessity or reward than because it was earned.

Myers never won more than 14 games in his eight seasons with the Phillies, and never topped 200 innings. Just twice Myers posted a season ERA under 4.33 and he also finished in the top six in homers allowed during his past four full seasons.
 
But give credit to Myers for being the good soldier when asked to give up starting for relieving (and vice versa) or when he was asked to go back to the minors to regain his form in July of 2008.

Myers started on Opening Day for the third straight year in 2009 and was one of 12 different pitchers the Phillies used to start games this season. Moreover, the team was plagued by ineffectiveness and injuries to the starting staff throughout the regular season and the group only really came together when Amaro traded for Cliff Lee and signed Pedro Martinez.

Myers has served in multiple roles but now he won’t be doing any of them with the Phillies.

“It’s great to have the core players that we have and it’s great to have many of them under contract, and we have the ability to keep them around,” Amaro said, noting that the decision to let Myers walk away was difficult. “But I welcome change. I think it’s good if done the right way and I hope to be creative doing some things to improve our club.”

For more on the Phillies from John Finger visit his blog, "Finger Food."