Cliff Lee rumors on Monday night

The latest on Cliff Lee with little coming out – so far – from the Rangers camp on a Monday night with a meteor shower due in after midnight…

* Reports suggest the Phillies are in on this after all. They traded him last year. But if Lee joins a rotation that already includes Roy Oswalt, Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels… watch out.

* Lee wasn’t happy when the Phillies traded him to the Mariners last year but maybe time does heal all wounds.

* Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Lee has not made a decision yet. Cashman told Tyler Kepner of the New York Times: “They have not made any decision, same as yesterday… He’s got a life decision to make, and he’ll make one here someday.”

* Cashman also said the Yankees seven-year offer is the final one they are going to make. They are not going to “sweeten” it.

* Doubtful that the Rangers will go beyond what they offered on Thursday in Arkansas.

* The Washington Nationals are out of this. The Red Sox were in it early but have long since bowed out. That was before Carl Crawford signed a $142 million contract.

Everybody is waiting on Cliff Lee and his agent Darek Braunecker to make a final decision.

“Were they, for some purpose almost too cunning for belief?”

T.H. White… The Once and Future King.