Not really. Single season ERA numbers are a pretty silly way to say who was "a better pitcher". Maybe so, but there's also the fact that Marquis walked less batters per inning than Willis (3.57 BB/9 for Marquis, 3.81 BB/9 for Willis), gave up less home runs (1.03 HR/9 for Marquis, 1.27 HR/9 for Willis), a lower WHIP (1.39 for Marquis, 1.60 for Willis), and a lower OPS against (.739 for Marquis, .840 for Willis). The only thing Willis has an advantage in is strikeouts. It seems pretty silly to contend that Willis's year was not worse than Marquis. At the same time, it would be pretty silly to insinuate that Willis and Marquis were the same caliber of pitcher, as Willis is far and away better. As has been pointed out, the key with this contract is that it is not an open market contract. On the open market, his bad year would have been mostly ignored and he would have gotten a much bigger payday. In arbitration, Willis might not have gotten the same types of raise this year because of his bad year and so buying out one year of free agency in order to insure a bigger payday in the next year or two seems like a prudent move.