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Phillies rumors: Jon Heyman maintains multiple teams for Bryce Harper

By John Town

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 03: Bryce Harper #34 of the Washington Nationals hits a two-run home run in the ninth inning during a baseball game against the St Louis Cardinals at Nationals Park on September 3, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 03: Bryce Harper #34 of the Washington Nationals hits a two-run home run in the ninth inning during a baseball game against the St Louis Cardinals at Nationals Park on September 3, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman maintains that other teams still pursue Bryce Harper beside the Phillies.

The growing consensus among MLB writers is that a deal between Bryce Harper and the Phillies is not a matter of it, but rather when. Reports indicate that a deal could be done Monday or Tuesday. Despite all this, Jon Heyman of MLB Network maintains that other teams are still in the race for Harper.

For what seems like the millionth time this offseason, Heyman reported that multiple teams remain involved in the Harper hunt. He noted that Philadelphia has a lot going for them, but continues to say things aren’t just done yet.

If this sounds familiar, it should be. Heyman has been reporting all offseason, especially in the last week or so, that Harper’s field remains wide open. He does this despite other reporters or the teams themselves categorically denying teams besides the Phils remain in the hunt.

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Twitter user @SixersAdam compiled all the times Heyman tweeted essentially the same report about multiple teams still pursuing Harper. Heyman’s recent tweets about Harper have as many as five times as many replies as retweets, indicating that his word has lost major value.

All this has reinforced the notion that Heyman is acting as a mouthpiece for Harper’s agent, Scott Boras, to help drive the price up for Harper. When Heyman ran out of teams to say are still in, he just uses the idea of a mystery team to keep things alive. He even got to the point of calling out Phillies fans for scoffing at the idea of a mystery team, bringing up Cliff Lee’s signing back in 2011.

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With the growing number of writers like Jeff Passan and Buster Olney of ESPN, and Bob Nightengale of USA Today stating that Philadelphia should get Harper, Heyman’s reports about multiple teams grow less and less credible each time

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