Last Day Trade Notes: Phillies Look at Bautista, Harper Available

The Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline is today at 4 00 p.m. and last night there were a flurry of late-night trades.   The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Keone Kela from the Texas Rangers for two sleeping Pirates (literally, they announced the trade was for two players to be named since they were in bed and could not be reached).  The Boston Red Sox picked up Ian Kinsler from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to help fill in for the injured Dustin Pedroia.  And finally, the Atlanta Braves added Adam Duvall to their roster from the Cincinnati Reds.

But the big news last night was that the Washington Nationals have made outfielder Bryce Harper available for trade.

MLB.com's Mark Feinsand (not to be confused with Senator Dianne Feinsand of California) reported that the Nationals "let it be known that Harper is indeed available".   With such a short window of time, it will be hard to know which teams are or are not involved in such trade discussions.  The Phillies, who went heavily in on Manny Machado, very well could be involved.  There is nothing that links the Philllies to Harper right now, but since they were in on Machado, the club might just want to add that impact player to the roster.

In response, the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs joked that they did not need a .220 hitter.  But a lot of people think that Harper would fit with the Pigs' parent club:

But of course the Nationals are trying to play down any rumors:

Former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter and now-SNY columnist Andy Martino noted last night that the Phillies checked in with the Mets about outfielder Jose Bautista: 

The Phillies have long coveted Bautista.  This goes way back to the days of Ed Wade trying to accumulate young talent such as Bobby Abreu and Doug Glanville, through the Pat Gillick and Ruben Amaro eras when the club reportedly considered trading Domonic Brown for Bautista.  This time the impact would be much different.

The Phillies would like to improve their bench with a right-handed bat who can play some right field.  The Phillies looked into Adam Jones, but the thought is that Jones is not willing to accept a trade.  Bautista would be a bench player and that is it.

Much more could come down today, so stay tuned.