Phillies rumors: Team on Bryce Harper’s list, feels comfortable in Philly

In a press conference Wednesday, Scott Boras said his client Bryce Harper has the Phillies on his list and is comfortable playing in Philadelphia.

There are plenty of storylines going around at the MLB Winter Meetings, but perhaps none are more talked about than the pursuits of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. The Phillies are right in the middle of both pursuits as they hope to land at least one of the players.

Scott Boras, Harper’s agent, held a press conference and was mobbed by reporters. Philadelphia beat reporters obviously asked about the Phillies’ pursuit of Harper. While Boras remained rather vague, he did offer some insight into Harper’s opinion of the city.

Boras said that the Phils are on Harper’s list of possible destinations this offseason, adding that Harper is comfortable playing in Philadelphia. Boras did not say whether or not he has talked to team owner John Middleton, as well as denying if he believes the club wants Harper.

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Boras’s comments regarding Harper’s comfort in Philadelphia goes against a previous report from Jon Heyman of Fancred Sports about a week ago. Heyman stated that Harper was only “lukewarm” on Philadelphia as a city. Boras didn’t make it sound like Harper was completely in love with Philly, but comfortable is better than lukewarm.

Todd Zolecki of MLB.com asked Boras what he thought of general manager Matt Klentak’s comments regarding not being held hostage by one or two big free agents. This was Boras’ response:

"“I wasn’t there when he said it. I think that in the end all organizations are going to look back on this opportunity.“They’re going to look back on it and they’re going to say, ‘What should I have done? How should I have done it? What steps should I have taken?’ These are pivotal moments. There’s a lot of organizations and general managers that will be evaluated about what they did do or didn’t do when you have the availability of a player like that.”"

Boras didn’t offer anything specific with these comments. By reading between the lines, he seems to indicate that if teams miss out on someone like Harper or Machado, it could come back to haunt them down the road. In lay man’s terms, he’s saying if you miss out on Harper, you’ll be sorry.

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Turning toward comments made about the Harper pursuit as a whole, he offered the following quote:

"“When the nurse walks in w/ the thermometer, the issue isn’t what (it reads) that day…it’s the health of the patient when they’re ready to leave the hospital.”"

This quote could relate to the Yankees specifically, who have said that they aren’t going to go after Harper.

Just because they say they’re out of the race now doesn’t mean that they will be forever. Personally, this sounds like Boras trying to keep the market as open as possible to keep negotiations competitive.

With the winter meetings wrapping up tomorrow, its unlikely Harper signs a deal before everyone leaves Las Vegas. Still, Boras offered us a better understanding of how Philadelphia factors into the hunt for Harper.