MLB

Lee picks Phillies over Yankees

The Phillies? Really?

Seven years for a possible $154 million from the Yankees wasn’t enough to land Cliff Lee, according to two baseball executives.

Instead, the 32-year-old free agent lefty took less money than the Yankees were offering and agreed to return to the Phillies, the team he helped reach the 2009 World Series — won by the Yankees.

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According to sources, the Phillies’ offer was five years for more than $100 million and a sixth-year player option. That’s lower than the Yankees who, according to sources, extended two offers. One was for seven years and $150 million, the other for a guaranteed six years at $138 million with a player option for $16 million in the seventh year that would have hiked the package to $154 million.

The Rangers offered six years with a vesting option, but even that wasn’t good enough to retain the ace who hurled them to the World Series but was beaten twice by the Giants.

So, barring a deal involving Cole Hamels or Roy Oswalt, the Phillies have assembled the premier rotation in baseball that is fronted by Roy Halladay with Lee in the No. 2 slot.

Early last night, there was a feeling in the Yankees’ organization that Lee wasn’t landing in The Bronx and that proved correct.

Before midnight they were told by Lee’s agent, Darek Braunecker, that Lee “was headed in a different direction.” Minutes later, Texas was informed Lee was going to Philadelphia.

The Yankees and Rangers had been very vocal in their pursuit of Lee. The Phillies? Silent.

Phillies president David Montgomery and general manager Ruben Amaro didn’t return calls about Lee. Nor did Braunecker.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said he won’t address the issue until today.

Before the Yankees were informed that Lee wasn’t going to wear pinstripes, Cashman looked at the situation without the gloom and doom others saw in the possibility that Lee wouldn’t be a Yankee. And just because Lee isn’t coming to The Bronx, the Yankees aren’t cancelling the 2011 season.

“We have a really good team going forward. If he comes, it will be a huge get. If not we move forward regardless,” Cashman said before the deal went down.

When Lee hit the free-agent market in early November, the Yankees were the prohibitive favorites to land him. They had a need, and obviously the money. The Rangers cast themselves as the underdog.

The Phillies? They spent the Winter Meetings this month shooting down talk they were in on Lee.

Though many believe the Yankees are ruined without Lee, Cashman isn’t in that choir. Nor does he see a similarity between this situation and after the 2008 season when the Yankees missed the playoffs.

“This is much different than two years ago. We have a top-of-the-rotation pitcher in CC [Sabathia], an 18-game winner in [Phil] Hughes, and A.J. [Burnett] will rebound,” Cashman said. “We also have some of the best young pitchers in baseball and a top 10 minor league system. We’ve got a really good team and will make it better regardless of what transpires. I am not panicked by it.”

The addition of Lee would take pressure off Hughes and Burnett, who without Lee holds the key to the Yankees’ pitching success in his hands.

Burnett’s second Yankees season was a nightmare. Despite a five-year, $82.5 million contract, Burnett was dropped from the rotation for the ALDS. He finished 10-15 with a 5.26 ERA, gave up a crucial homer in an ALCS loss, punched a door in July, and in early September showed up in Baltimore with a black eye that he refused to discuss the origin of.

Adding to the uncertainty of the Yankees’ rotation is what Andy Pettitte is going to do. A year ago, he made up his mind and returned during the Winter Meetings.

Pettitte now will have a lot of leverage to get more money than the $11.75 million he earned last year. However, money isn’t believed to be the deciding factor if Pettitte pitches or retires.

Pettitte behind a rebounding Burnett and in front of Ivan Nova looks better than a relatively untested Nova behind Burnett.

As for trading for a top-of-the-rotation hurler, the Yankees’ options are limited. They believe Zack Greinke won’t allow the Royals to deal him to The Bronx, and if he did, the Yankees aren’t inclined to move stud catching prospect Jesus Montero.

The Mariners liked Montero in July when the Yankees believed they had a trade for Lee completed. If the Mariners shop Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez and ask for Montero again, the Yankees have to listen.

Additional reporting
by Joel Sherman

george.king@nypost.com