UPDATE (1:33 pm): It's official.
Sounds like the Phillies are closing in on a three-year deal to bring back Placido Polanco as their third baseman. Todd Zolecki puts the terms at three years, $18 million with a mutual option for a fourth year. Polanco, 34, won a Gold Glove for the Tigers last year--as a second baseman. He hit .285/.331/.396 in 2009, and is a .303 career hitter. Of course, Polanco played for the Phils in 2002-2005, coming aboard in the Scott Rolen deal and leaving three seasons later for Ugueth Urbina.
My first reaction here is despair--well, actually, it's self-flagellation for suggesting that it might be time to trust the Phillies. On its face, this just doesn't make a lot of sense: the team is about to overpay for the decline stage of a player with very little power or speed, being asked to shift positions no less--all while two clearly better options, Chone Figgins and Adrian Beltre, remain on the market. That said, if both of those players receive deals for three years or longer, and get paid upwards of $10 million a year, the Polanco contract makes some sense. But those are big ifs, and even if true it doesn't make the Phils a better team on the field in 2010.