Phillies Add Papelbon As Closer Over Madson

R. Amaro Jr. the Philadelphia Phillies general manager, less then a month after his team won 102 regular season games, only to lose in 5 games in the NLDS to the eventual World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals, made a free agent splash, a surprising one nevertheless. Phillies free agent closer Ryan Madson was not resigned, instead the Phillies went into the direction of experience and added former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon. Inking the 2 time World Series champion to a rumored 4 year $50million deal, that's about $14.5million dollars per year. Hopefully Papelbon will be worth the money. He didn't pitch well down the stretch in September, for the Red Sox, however it was a total team collapse and they blew the Wild Card lead and missed the postseason. 2011 was Madson first full season as a closer, not sure if Phillies wanted to take the risk financially on him, due to lack of experience at the position. Madson was a former set up man to Brad Lidge and helped lead the Phillies to 5 straight NL East titles, a pair of World Series appearances and 1victory parade in 2008.