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Phillies

It Sure Sounds Like Gabe Kapler Wants Bryce Harper

Bob Wankel

By Bob Wankel

Published:

VIA TWITTER

Phillies manager Gabe Kapler met with reporters at the Major League Baseball winter meetings this afternoon in Las Vegas, and let me just say, the guy is a total quote machine:

Without question, acquiring a player of, say, Bryce Harper’s caliber would go a long way towards building up that physical armor, and Kapler was unsurprisingly asked during the session about baseball’s most coveted free agent. His answer did nothing to dispel the rumors of the Phillies’ planned aggressive pursuit of Harper.

Here he is, after the jump:

His praise for Harper was what I would describe as effusive, and his answer differed in length and tone when talking about this winter’s other big-time free agent, Manny Machado.

The Inquirer’s Matt Breen checks in with a convenient side-by-side comparison:

That answer on Machado was complimentary, but the Harper one was… swoonish.

For what it’s worth, NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury says the team continues to make Machado its primary target:

This, while The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal writes in an interesting piece exploring the agent battle brewing between Scott Boras and Dan Lazano that the Phillies have an interesting competitor in their courtship of Harper – themselves.

Believe what you will.

You can check out Kapler’s full comments below:

Bob Wankel
Bob Wankel

Bob Wankel covers the Phillies for Crossing Broad. He is also the Vice President of Sports Betting Content at SportRadar. On Twitter: @Bob_Wankel E-mail: b.wankel@sportradar.com

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