MLB Rumors: Phillies Owner Gives Bryce Harper 24-Hour Deadline To Accept $350M Offer, ‘MLB Insider’ Claims

With the Los Angeles Dodgers suddenly entering the Bryce Harper free agent sweepstakes, as The Inquisitr reported, the Philadelphia Phillies have apparently seen enough from Harper and will withdraw their offer to the 26-year-old six-time All-Star if he doesn’t accept the deal by Tuesday afternoon. At least, that is the story according to the controversial MLB Insider Twitter account, which was among the first outlets to report the Dodgers’ interest on Saturday.

News that Dodgers brass had appeared in Las Vegas, Harper’s hometown, over the weekend to meet face-to-face with the free agent broke nationally on Monday morning, as The Inquisitr reported.

But it was shortly before 3 p.m. on Saturday that the MLB Insider account posted on Twitter stating that representatives from a team other than the Phillies had flown to Vegas to meet with Harper.

On Monday, the MLB Insider account posted another Twitter message, with a “source” claiming that the Phillies had given an ultimatum to Harper, saying, “In a phone conversation today, #Phillies owner John Middleton told Scott Boras that Bryce Harper has 24 hours to accept the #Phillies $350M+ offer, or he’s pulling it and pivoting to other free agents.”

Boras is the super-agent who represents Harper and numerous other top MLB players. Boras was rated the most powerful agent in any sport for the sixth consecutive year in 2018, by Forbes magazine.

The MLB Insider apparently claimed to know that the Phillies had made an offer totaling $350 million to Harper, though that exact sum has not been independently confirmed by other outlets. But according to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, the Phillies are believed to be “the only team talking to Harper about a true long-term deal.”

Zolecki added on his Twitter feed that despite the fact that Los Angeles is located much closer to Harper’s Las Vegas home, and with six straight National League West titles and two consecutive World Series appearances the Dodgers are in a better position to win a championship, Harper will simply take the most lucrative deal offered to him. The Phillies believe that they have made that offer, Zolecki said.

But later on Monday, the MLB Insider Twitter threw another wrinkle into the Harper saga, reporting that “another MLB owner” in addition to the Phillies and Dodgers ownership has “requested his own face to face meeting” with Harper in Vegas. The owner represented a team in “a major U.S. city,” the report claimed.

Another Twitter user speculated that the owner from a “major U.S. city” was Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox. But the latest MLB Insider report remains unconfirmed.