Jack Curry of the YES Network believes that Cliff Lee will be headed back to his former team. No, not the Texas Rangers, but the Philadelphia Phillies. Curry believes that Lee will return to the organization that traded him last winter to Seattle.
Jon Heyman has reported that Lee may be willing to leave up to 70 million dollars on the table to return to Philadelphia. Heyman also believes that no decision from Lee will come tonight, but could come as early as tomorrow.
The Phillies were originally mentioned by Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal as a dark horse for Lee’s services on December 5th. Heyman among others has been speculating about a “mystery team” being involved in the Lee bidding and that mystery team has revealed itself to be the Phillies.
Lee was acquired by the Philles in July of 2009 and he helped lead the Phillies to the World Series, where they were defeated by the Yankees. He was then traded to Seattle before Texas acquired him in July. Lee helped the Rangers advance to the World Series, where Lee lost both of his starts to Giants ace Tim Lincecum as the Giants won their first World Series title since moving to San Francisco.