Report: Yankees have engaged in Bryce Harper talks

The New York Yankees’ interest in Bryce Harper is apparently real.

According to Jon Heyman of Fancred, the Yankees have had internal and external talks about outfielder Bryce Harper, despite downplaying their interest in him publicly.

Opinion within the game, according to Heyman, is that the Yankees will end up with either Harper or Manny Machado.

prevalent baseball exec opinion: Harper & Machado wind up with NY & Philly, 1 to each. but which one goes to which team? philly seems most aggressive, yanks have admitted interest in machado but downplayed interest in harper (they have had internal and external BH talks however)

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 21, 2018

The Yankees have mostly focused on starting pitching this offseason and still are. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t pursue a big bat, and Harper’s agent clearly wants New York involved in the bidding. We’re a long way from anything actually happening, but they’re clearly considering it.