If you have grown weary of what has thus far been an underwhelming Phillies’ offseason, I can’t blame you. Big money and bold statements led to high hopes and great expectations for a memorable winter shopping spree, but as big-name free agents continue to sign elsewhere, fans know only this truth as the calendar flips to 2019 – talk is cheap.

And that’s pretty much where I’m at with this process. So forgive me that I’m not overly aroused by Jim Salisbury’s report that the Phillies plan to meet with Bryce Harper in Las Vegas next week:

In fact, a person close to the player tells NBC Sports Philadelphia that a face-to-face meeting between Harper and Phillies officials is being planned for “the next week or so,” in Harper’s hometown of Las Vegas. Phillies officials met with Harper’s representative, Scott Boras, at the winter meetings in Las Vegas last month. The player was not in attendance at that meeting.

Huzzah!

In a vacuum, that the Phillies’ plan to meet with Harper is obviously an encouraging development for those hoping the team lands him, but whereas once upon a time not so long ago I couldn’t get enough of the Harper/Machado developments, I’ve now become borderline indifferent. One report stokes hope, the next pisses on it. So it goes.

Here’s what we know, which is what we’ve known all along.

  1. They’re interested in both players
  2. It’s going to take a monster offer to get either one to come here

And that’s really it. Maybe I’m just being surly on this first work day of the new year, but Vegas odds, Instagram follows, and unsourced material speculating the interests and preferences of these guys have ceased to interest me.

Have the meetings, make the offers, and let’s move on.

Kinkead: the saga continues, Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang