MLB Free Agency 2013: Phillies Have Not Offered Josh Hamilton 3-Year, $80M Deal
******UPDATE (2:38 p.m.):*********
According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, their story on Josh Hamilton being offered a contract by the Phillies was based on a fake source.
The Hamilton/Philly reports all sprung out of a fake Jon Heyman account (my fake account is much cooler). Our website was duped. Apologies.
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) December 12, 2012
The fake Jon Heyman Twitter account strikes again.
If you go to the link for the story on the Dallas Morning News site, it has been taken down.
My apologies to any Philly fan who might have gotten their hopes up based off the story or the other one that was published earlier this morning.
And so, we wait some more on where Hamilton signs this winter.
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For the second time in three years, the Rangers may lose a top player to the City of Brotherly Love.
According to Gerry Fraley of The Dallas Morning News, the Phillies have offered free agent slugger Josh Hamilton a three-year deal for $80 million.
CBS Sports in Philly also confirmed the offer, basing it off the story from The Dallas Morning News.
Hamilton hit .285 with 43 home runs and 128 RBI in 2012 with the Texas Rangers.
He won the 2010 AL Most Valuable Player Award and finished fifth in the 2012 AL MVP Award voting.
The Phillies just acquired Hamilton’s former teammate Michael Young, plus the Phillies have another one of his former Texas teammates in Cliff Lee, who was on the Rangers in 2010.
This would be the second winter in three years where the Phillies quietly crept into free agent negotiations and snagged the top player on the market.
Back in December 2010, the Phillies got Cliff Lee after the Yankees and Rangers were negotiating with him all winter.
In fact, it’s almost two years to the day in which the Phillies made the five-year deal with Lee.
The Phillies also recently acquired Twins center fielder Ben Revere, so Philly could put Hamilton in left or right field along with Domonic Brown.
A lot of teams have been skeptical on signing Hamilton because of his past with drugs and alcohol, plus the fact that he is 31 years old, but a three-year offer would only lock Hamilton up until age 34.
The story from the Dallas newspaper said the deal could be done as soon as Wednesday night, so Philadelphia might actually land Hamilton within the next few hours.
Stay tuned, fans.
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