Perhaps it was surprising only in how quickly it happened, and how emphatically.

Less than 48 hours after the Phillies 2009 campaign ended with a 7-3 loss to the Yankees in Game 6 of the World Series, the Brett Myers era was over.

Jim Salisbury reported that Myers had been informed that he would not be offered a contract by the Phillies in the offseason.

Doesn’t matter that Myers just turned 29 years old. Doesn’t matter if Brad Lidge has loose bodies in his throwing elbow and had a historically bad season for a closer. Doesn’t matter if the bullpen is a major question mark during this offseason. Doesn’t matter if the Phillies rotation is anything but set for next year. Doesn’t matter if the only pitching options other than Myers for 2010 are Don Carman or Matt Beech.

Essentially, the Phillies don’t want Brett Myers back, no matter what. Period.

With the uncertainty surrounding the Phillies pitching options going into 2010, the decision here was definitely character related, although not exclusively.

Myers’ worst off-field problem was the domestic violence incident involving his wife in mid-2006 while the Phillies were in Boston for an interleague series with the Red Sox. If you think that incident played a huge role in the Phillies’ decision to sever ties with Myers, think again: they offered him a 3 year contract the February after he was charged with striking his wife.

Myers also had a well-documented scrap with Sam Carchidi of the Inquirer in August of 2007, when Brett Myers called Carchidi a retard and Carchidi requested that Myers spell it. The incident arose when Carchidi pressed Myers to describe how hard a couple of home runs were hit off of the testy righthander:

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Then this year, Myers had the mysterious eye injury in August that was either an accident getting out of an Escalade, or he was hit by his son while playing catch, or maybe he was in a barfight. Regardless of how he injured himself, Myers missed a rehab start.

Most recently, the New York media pounced on an apparently out-of-context exchange with Cole Hamels that was perceived as Myers calling Hamels out for “quitting” on the team after his World Series Game 3 debacle. Turns out the pitchers are friendly and there was no issue.

From a pitching perspective, Myers career began to take strange turns in 2007, when he was pressed into service as the team’s closer ahead of Tom Gordon. Myers went down with a shoulder unjury in 2007, but still finished with 21 saves and was on the mound on September 30th for the 9th when the Phillies won their first National League East title in 14 years.

2008 was a roller coaster for Brett, who pitched so poorly in the first half of the season that he accepted a demotion in early July to AAA to work on his stuff and his head. When Myers returned he was initially brilliant, going 5-1 in 8 starts with a 1.78 ERA. But his September was not as sharp, and he bottomed out with a dud of an outing at Florida on September 19th, when he gave up 10 ER in 4 IP.

Regardless, Myers was the second starter throughout the postseason, and the Phillies went 2-1 in his 3 starts, the one loss being Game 2 of the World Series.

In 2009, Myers was out from late May until the beginning of September due to a torn labrum that required surgery. Myers was never a big factor for the Phils after that, so much so that he was left off the NLCS roster. Myers’ last appearance for the Phillies was in Game 3 of the World Series at home, when he pitched the 8th inning and gave up a home run to Phillies killer Hideki Matsui.

With Brad Lidge slated for elbow surgery, Chan Ho Park and Pedro Martinez’s returns uncertain, offering Myers a low base, incentive-laden offer would hardly have been a controversial move.

Letting Myers, and the Phillies, move on, Ruben Amaro Jr. again shows that he is hardly nostalgic about tenured Phillies players if he thinks that he can improve the ballclub instead of standing pat.

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In other post-World Series news, Cliff Lee’s 2010 option was exercised by the Phillies, surprising no one. The Phillies still have yet to make a decision about no-hit, good glove third baseman Pedro Feliz, but Ruben Amaro’s comments yesterday were any indication, the Phils would love to cut ties with Feliz and bring in a better hitting third baseman:

“He had a solid year for us,” Amaro said. “I like the man personally. He’s a great person and a great teammate, but I also believe in trying to improve, and sometimes change can be for the better. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to, but it’s just something that we’re thinking about.”

Feliz was generally brutal in the postseason, showing almost zero plate discipline by swing at first pitches in situations that screams out for a discerning eye.

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Brad Lidge, Scott Eyre and Raul Ibanez will all undergo surgery in the coming days for a variety of ailments. Balls Sticks & Stuff points out a necessary fix for Lidge that appears to be going unresolved: