{"id":574331,"date":"2026-02-15T19:10:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/574331\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T19:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:10:21","slug":"the-last-man-in-free-agent-tournament-cliff-lee-vs-michael-saunders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/574331\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cLast Man In\u201d free agent tournament: Cliff Lee vs. Michael Saunders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">To nobody\u2019s surprise, Bryce Harper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegoodphight.com\/phillies-features\/77939\/the-last-man-in-free-agent-tournament-bryce-harper-vs-dustin-mcgowan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">earned more votes<\/a> than Dustin McGowan in their matchup of the \u201cLast Man In\u201d free agent tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Stats with the Phillies: 118 games, 48-34 W-L, 2.94 ERA, 813 K, 124 BB, 20.7 bWAR<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Phillies traded for Cliff Lee at the 2009 trade deadline, and he helped them reach the World Series. And then, the Phillies traded him away for a really awful return. Lee was a free agent after 2010, and with Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt already in the Phillies\u2019 rotation, most people didn\u2019t think they were even a remote possibility for Lee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">However, Lee apparently loved it in Philadelphia and took a slightly lower offer with the \u201cmystery team\u201d to return. The result was the ultra-fun (at least until the playoffs) 2011 season of the Four Aces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The rest of Lee\u2019s time with the Phillies was somewhat disappointing, but darned if 2011 wasn\u2019t fun.<\/p>\n<p>16. Michael Saunders, 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Stats with the Phillies: 61 games, .205\/.257\/.360, 6 HR, 20 RBIs, -0.9 bWAR<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">By 2017, the Phillies were starting to transition out of rebuild mode, and general manager Matt Klentak wanted to acquire some veteran \u201cprofessional hitters\u201d to supplement the young lineup. One of the guys he targeted was outfielder Michael Saunders who had made the All-Star Game with the Blue Jays the year before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">There were some warning signs with Saunders. 2016 was the first season in an eight-year career he hit over 20 home runs or had an OPS over .800. And though his first half of 2016 was All-Star caliber, he slumped badly in the second half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">That slumped continued into 2017. By mid-June, the Phillies decided if they were going to get poor hitting from a right fielder, it might as well be from a young hitter with some potential to improve. They released Saunders who went back to Toronto and continued to hit poorly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Who should advance? Vote now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To nobody\u2019s surprise, Bryce Harper earned more votes than Dustin McGowan in their matchup of the \u201cLast Man&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,72344],"class_list":{"0":"post-574331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies","14":"tag-phillies-features"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116076231099842796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}