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Devan Kaney Elaborates on Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins Reporting
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Devan Kaney vs. Howard Eskin.
DK vs. BK.
Here’s Kaney following up on her report about Bryce Harper, right handed reinforcements, and Rhys Hoskins:
“What stood out to me was that Bryce Harper went to Dave Dombrowski and this Phillies front office because he felt there wasn’t enough right-handed power. So Rhys Hoskins, being one of the few right-handed free agents left, obviously his name came up. Now, when Bryce Harper went to them, or if he went to them about Rhys Hoskins specifically, I don’t have that in my report. I don’t know if that was earlier in December before they added Adolis Garcia. But I was told that Bryce would have been willing to move back to right field if Rhys were to rejoin. In terms of the timeline of Dombrowski kicking tires on Rhys Hoskins, that was in February, so recently. That being said, I think when it comes to Rhys Hoskins himself, and I was told this by my source with the team, they’re like ‘just be careful because his name is going to set people off… people are going to get fired up or mad or excited because everyone loved Rhys Hoskins…’ Now, as recently as this morning I was told that Phillies brass, which obviously includes Dave Dombrowski and perhaps even John Middleton, sat down with Bryce Harper very recently and talked it out and said ‘you know let’s just keep everything in house moving forward.’ And they’re trying to mend this relationship.”
There’s more from the quote, but as we “advance the story” here the thing to focus on is whether or not Bryce is locked the fuck in. We’ll see where Adolis Garcia slots in, and how he looks, because otherwise the right-handed bat behind Harper is likely Alec Bohm again. Either way, Bryce should be healthy and ready to go, and he’s gotta worry about himself as much as anything Dave Dombrowski did or didn’t do. Say what you will about the Phillies “running it back,” but this is a 96-win team that’s good enough to meet the Dodgers in the NLCS.
As for whether Kaney’s reporting is true or not, people can take whatever side they want. We’ve all been around long enough to know that sourced reporting inevitably turns into he said / she said situations, and Harper happens to be the “he” in this particular case. For what it’s worth, 99.9% of Eagles fans shat all over the Joe Santoliquito report on Carson Wentz, which ended up being true, so it’s really hard to render judgment without mind-reading tools.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com