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Tuesday night, a report from Howard Eskin of Fox 29 and 94 WIP Radio in Philadelphia claimed that the Phillies were "deep" in talks for Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista, but early on Wednesday both Jon Heyman of CBS Sports and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reported that there is no truth to the rumor.
At 7:14 on Tuesday, Eskin reported via twitter that he was hearing the Phillies were working on a major trade. He then followed that report with this tweet-
#phillies GM Ruben Amaro deep in serious talks w #bluejays to acquire OF Jose Batista. Can also play 3rd. Phils would deal OF Dom Brown plus
— Howard Eskin (@howardeskin) November 13, 2013
The report remained unconfirmed for hours as speculation on the motives for both teams permeated the social networking site. In the early hours of Wednesday morning Davidi became the first person to strike the rumor down, tweeting-
So before nonsensical Jose Bautista to Phillies for Dominic Brown rumour gets built up any more, there's no validity to it. None. #BlueJays
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) November 13, 2013
Heyman followed up shortly after-
just to clear something up, #blueJays arent trading jose bautista for dom brown. not even close.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) November 13, 2013
While this specific rumor appears to be inaccurate, the details may point to at least one real element of interest; the Phillies are willing to listen on trades involving outfielder Domonic Brown, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com. There has been no information on the Blue Jays' willingness to move Jose Bautista at this point.