The Phillies’ offseason has been a total snoozer, so we’ll jump at the chance to share any pathetic scrap of information out there, even if it’s a Scott Boras trap. Bob Nightengale shared the following in a recent USA Today notebook:

Several executives think the Philadelphia Phillies could be a sleeper for one of the remaining marquee free agents in starter Jordan Montgomery or center fielder Cody Bellinger. Their lone big move has been re-signing Aaron Nola, and Bellinger certainly would provide Gold Glove-caliber defense and another bat to balance the lineup. Montgomery would strengthen the top of the rotation.

Yet, unless their price-tags drop, the Phillies plan to remain patient.

John Kincade was talking about this on Monday morning. He wasn’t exactly thrilled with the thought of the Phillies being a “sleeper” candidate or a dark horse candidate at all, based on the fact that they’ve gone to a World Series and NLCS in consecutive years and should firmly be at the top of the MLB totem pole when it comes to pursuing and attracting the best free agents. That’s more of a larger-level thought and maybe not necessarily applicable to this particular case, because maybe the insiders have information on Montgomery and Bellinger preferring specific non-Philly spots for specific reasons. Or, maybe this is just Boras doing his classic bullshit to get a couple of his clients paid.

We’ll see!

Regardless, it does kind of reek from a “get over the hump” perspective. The Phillies’ only big move this winter has been re-signing one of their own guys, Aaron Nola. Ohtani and Yamamoto went to the Dodgers and Josh Hader is an Astro. The Orioles went out and traded for Corbin Burnes. Arizona and San Francisco got better. There are good players still out there, but the Phils have done very little so far, a very Philadelphia Union-esque offseason. Sign your own guy to a new deal, run it back, and hope you get back to the World Series with the players still on the roster. How often does that work out for a team? Maybe we’ll find out, but hopefully not.