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Phillies, Red Sox Discussed Joe Blanton
7:54am: No agreement has been finalized, reports WEEI's Rob Bradford. A deal is unlikely, tweets ESPN's Gordon Edes. The talks were never serious, reports Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.
7:35am: Word is that the Phillies have a Blanton deal in place with the Red Sox, tweets SI's Jon Heyman. As one MLBTR commenter noted below, Boston's goal might have been to help facilitate Lee signing with a National League club. The Red Sox could always flip Blanton in the coming months, taking that burden off the Phillies.
7:14am: The Phillies were deep in discussions yesterday about sending Joe Blanton to the Red Sox, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Moving some of the $17MM owed to Blanton seems to be a priority for the Phillies now that they've added Cliff Lee's huge salary to the payroll.
The Red Sox would be a surprising match for Blanton, as they've already got John Lackey, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Josh Beckett penciled into the rotation with Tim Wakefield under contract as well. Some teams have inquired on Matsuzaka, but Blanton wasn't great in his last American League stint and might not be an upgrade.
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