If I’m being honest, I think I’m experiencing Bryce Harper free agency fatigue.

Where will he go? Does he like the northeast? Are the Dodgers in play? Will John Middleton make the “Godfather offer” he simply can’t refuse? What about the MYSTERY TEAMS?

“Sources” this, and “rival front office people” that. The winter meetings are done, we’re coming up on Christmas, and Harper’s future landing spot seems no more certain to anybody than it did on the final day of the regular season. So we wait. And we listen to conflicting reports, uncorroborated and unsourced speculation, attaching our hopes to the decisions of Harper, and, of course, Manny Machado. And while the Phillies understandably don’t want to be held hostage by either superstar free agent, the truth is this is a team in a pretty vulnerable spot. Add one of these players, and it changes everything. A cornerstone talent and franchise-altering player paves a possible path to the postseason that can be taken as soon as this summer. Stand pat, and without strain, there’s a legitimate argument the Phillies are currently the fourth-best team in the NL East. This is high stakes stuff.

So what’s the latest? Not much, at the moment, but given the level of intrigue, the following seems worth mentioning. Despite rumors of significant interest from the White Sox, Dodgers, and mystery teams, it remains the Phillies that are the betting favorite to land arguably baseball’s brightest star:

Some thoughts:

1) Do these odds actually matter? Historically speaking, no, not at all. We’ve been down this road before and it has led us nowhere.

2) Where are the Yankees? Where the hell are the Yankees? I know they’re somewhere out there, lurking, ready to ruin this for all of us. Bastards.

3) The Cardinals completely weird me out at +600. Those odds aren’t outrageous, and while they wouldn’t seemingly be able to match the Phillies’ offer, the idea of pairing up with the newly-acquired Paul Goldschmidt in “Baseball Heaven” is probably an enticing thought for Harper and completely startling for me.

As for Machado, who will reportedly visit town on Thursday, I didn’t think this warranted its own post, but Jim Duquette of MLB Network Radio seems to think, without any concrete evidence, the Phils remain in the lead:

And so we continue to wait like the desperate hostages we are.

It’s worth noting– these odds come from the offshore books. The legal NJ online sportsbooks don’t offer odds on this that we can find.

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