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UPDATE: Deal believed to be worth in the neighborhood of five years, $100 million. Really. Yankees offer estimated to be 6-7 years, total value $150 million. Really really.
UPDATE UPDATE: Todd Zolecki reporting deal around five years, $120 million.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: Jerry Crasnick reporting that Amaro is hard at work on a deal to ship Joe Blanton elsewhere, presumably in a salary dump.
Holy moley. T.R. Sullivan, the Texas Rangers beat writer for MLB.com, reports that the Rangers have been told that free agent pitcher Cliff Lee will be signing with the Phillies.
He's back, and he's ours.
The projected Phillies front four of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels had four of the top 12 SIERAs in MLB in 2010. Lee's 10.28 SO/BB ratio was the best in baseball since Bret Saberhagen's 11.00 mark in 1994, and was the second best in modern baseball history.
This is obviously an incredible turn of events, and I don't really have much to tell you about Cliff Lee that you don't already know. Absolutely crazy.