Cliff Lee was medically cleared to resume a throwing program Tuesday, but the Philadelphia Phillies left-hander said if the discomfort near his left elbow returns, "I'm not going to go out there in pain."

"There's no timeline [to make a decision on surgery]," Lee said. "I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing and do it as long as I can. I'm not going to go out there in pain to where something bad can potentially happen. That doesn't make sense to me. So I'm going to play as long as I comfortably can. When it's uncomfortable to play and it hurts to play, then it's not worth it."

Dr. James Andrews agreed with Philadelphia's diagnosis that the MRI of Lee's torn common flexor tendon shows no apparent change, but Ruben Amaro Jr. said the team is "not terribly optimistic" that Lee can avoid surgery.