Phillies still bidding for prize ace  —  Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005.  He appears weekly on MLB on FOX.  Follow him on Twitter.  —  The Yankees and Rangers are not alone.  —  The Phillies are still bidding for free-agent left-hander Cliff Lee …

Phillies Agree To Sign Cliff Lee  —  The wait is over.  In a surprising development that leaves two top American League teams empty-handed, Cliff Lee has agreed to sign a five-year, $120MM deal with the Phillies.  The contract includes a $27.5MM vesting option for 2016 with a $12.5MM buyout, plus partial no-trade clause.

Sources: Cliff Lee to return to Phillies  —  The numbers had been crunched and all the scenarios exhausted Monday night when Cliff Lee finally made his decision.  —  He picked up the phone, thanked Rangers general manager Jon Daniels for his time in Texas and revealed he was signing with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Phillies swoop in and bring back Lee  —  ARLINGTON — Free-agent pitcher Cliff Lee is headed back to Philadelphia.  —  The Rangers worked as hard as they could to re-sign Lee, but their pursuit came to an end on Monday when he informed the club that he was signing with the Phillies.

Lee spurns Yanks, Rangers, returns to Phils … Almost a year after they traded him, Cliff Lee is headed back to the Philadelphia Phillies.  —  Lee, the most highly sought pitcher on this winter's free-agent market, turned down more lucrative offers from the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers …

Cliff Lee's return simply stunning  —  Left is headed back to Philly, proving that he wasn't really after the biggest paycheck  —  Of all the crazy free-agent sagas in baseball history, where would we rank this one?  —  Of all the nutty, convoluted, out-of-the-wild-blue-yonder twists …

Cliff Lee Accepts Late Bid by the Phillies  —  All along, the Yankees knew they were fighting the Texas Rangers for Cliff Lee.  But they also had a sense of dread, a feeling that a stealth team might steal the latest pitcher of their dreams.  They had reason to be worried.

Phillies, Red Sox Discussed Joe Blanton  —  7:54am: No agreement has been finalized, reports WEEI's Rob Bradford.  A deal is unlikely, tweets ESPN's Gordon Edes.  The talks were never serious, tweets Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.  —  7:35am: Word is that the Phillies have a Blanton deal …

Phillies Come Out of Nowhere in Winning Bid for Lee  —  Nobody wants to be unemployed around the holidays, but Clifton Phifer Lee of Little Rock, Ark., did not seem to mind.  The Yankees, the Texas Rangers and, now, the Philadelphia Phillies were eagerly awaiting Lee's decision on where to continue …

Best.  Rotation.  Ever?  —  After a six week dance with New York and Texas, Cliff Lee has apparently decided to spurn them both and sign with the [Mystery Team] Philadelphia Phillies.  If the Jayson Werth deal was a shocker, this one breaks the Richter Scale.