Phillies daily links: 12/11/18

Here at The Good Phight:

• Meet your newest member of The Good Phight, Evan, who discussed yesterday how the Phillies improving their defense would go a long way toward improving their pitching.
• The first day of the MLB Winter Meetings weren’t particularly active, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone. Yesterday was more about talking to Gabe Kapler and listening to him speak about Manny Machado and Bryce Harper and everybody whispering to everybody else about what they might or might not do later. It’s all here.

Other Phillies news:

• If you were wondering if Kapler had any new Kaplerisms yesterday, the answer is

• It came out yesterday that Cesar Hernandez played the second half of last season with a broken foot. Which raises questions.
• Check with Jim Salisbury before believing just about anything this week. Here’s Jim on how the Phillies are headed for their long-awaited meetings with the representation of both Machado and Harper, but how they might not feel like waiting around.

MLB esoterica:

• Brian Cashman doesn’t seem interested in Bryce Harper. In fact, he seems happy with the six outfielders the Yankees currently employ. So, if you still trust what baseball executives say in public, it sounds the Yankees [still] won’t be the Phillies’ competition for Harper.
• The Braves have made themselves better, but with a few more moves to make, they seem to be headed for a subtraction before their next big addition.
• Sounds like J.P. Crawford’s playing time isn’t about to get any beefier in Seattle.
• The Mets’ next exciting move might be to land J.T. Realmuto! And all they’d have to do is give Noah Syndergaard to the Yankees.