Crossing Broad
We’re living in quite the times when two of the biggest faces in Philly sports are using the media to send messages.
But to who exactly? We know Bryce Harper is likely sending a message to John Middleton and Dave Dombrowski, given the quotes he provided to The Athletic’s Matt Gelb in response to Dombrowski’s end-of-season press conference a couple of weeks ago:
“I have given my all to Philly from the start. Now there is trade talk? I made every effort to avoid this. It’s all I heard in D.C. (with the Nationals). I hated it. It makes me feel uncomfortable.”
In case you missed it, Dombrowski said, “He’s the one who will dictate [whether he’ll be an elite player again] more than anything else. That’s what it comes down to. I don’t think he’s content with the year that he had. And, again, it wasn’t a bad year. But when I think of Bryce Harper, you’re thinking elite, right? You’re thinking of one of the top 10 players in baseball, and I don’t think it fit into that category.”
Harper likely realizes the trade talk isn’t coming from anyone that has the ability to make that happen, right?
On the Eagles’ side, we have A.J. Brown posting cryptic tweets after team wins in which he had pretty good stat lines, so whatever has him not outwardly happy, it’s not the numbers.
So, who is it for?
By now, we know exactly how the response to these types of things goes. We have some fans and media telling everyone to ignore the smoke. We have some fans and media pouring gas on the fire. We have some fans and media debating whether trading both, neither, or one of the two.
It’s kind of wild. We joke around about a certain segment of the fanbase overreacting to everything, but then things like this happen, and it gives them the power to say, “See?” even when nothing has happened. Now the offseason will be full of conversation among media and fans debating whether or not Harper should be traded, despite the fact that he has a no-trade clause. They will lament whether or not trading Brown is good for the team overall, despite the massive cap hit the Eagles would take on. Howie Roseman’s dealt with big cap hits before, so that now apparently doesn’t matter when, in all likelihood, he would like to avoid eating a ton of dead money once again.
Of course, owner Jeffrey Lurie might have final say on that, and said as much to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini when he explained that the Eagles will always do what’s best for the team. This gives the Negadelphians more power.
Just a month ago, I wrote about why some fans and media want the wide receiver diva behavior. At that point, Brown wasn’t really involved in the first two games. It’s a little harder to defend the cryptic posts after he’s been eating. I even [cited a...
