In a total bombshell on Sunday morning, ESPN insider Buster Olney reported that the "Philadelphia Phillies have communicated to other teams that they are facing a financial crunch and are open to offers for their second-highest-paid player, starting pitcher Zack Wheeler, according to sources.

Slugger Bryce Harper is the team's highest-paid player, but there is no indication yet that the Phillies will look to deal him off their books."

This ESPN report certainly rocked the baseball world. Even if the story is true or false, the first thought that popped into our mind was Mike Rizzo and the Washington Nationals' right about signing Bryce Harper to a lengthy and expensive contract.

Before we get into if Mike Rizzo and the Washington Nationals were right about not signing Harper to a 13 year $330 million contract, let's examine the report.

Top officials from the Phillies organization have since gone on record to Jim Salisbury from NBC Sports Philadelphia. Managing partner John Middleton said: "There's zero truth to this." Salisbury stated that Middleton "deliberately enunciating every word." Salisbury additionally spoke to Phillies club President Andy MacPhail over the phone where MacPhail said: "Zach is very much in our plans going forward."

From face value, the story out of Philadelphia does seem to make sense. Over the past few days and weeks, there have been reports that the team was dealing with significant financial losses from the shortened 2020 season and that the Phillies were looking to trade or to get Jean Segura's $14 million deal off the books.

Additionally, the Phillies have not been to the playoffs since 2011, which happens to be the team's last season with a winning record. Another reason why one must look at this report a bit more closely is that last week John Clark, a reporter from NBC Sports Philadelphia, stated that in a Tweet the Phillies "lost $145 million" in 2020, not $2 billion as the New York Daily News reported.

For those who say, okay, case over, the report is false because the owner says that it is, I have a bridge to Brooklyn to sell you. That's not saying that the story is true; all I am saying is that only time will tell. The ESPN report timing makes sense from previous stories and the horrible shape that Major League Baseball and teams are in economically from the 2020 season.

Mike Rizzo & the Washington Nationals

While no one could have predicted a massive global health pandemic back in the winter of 2019, let alone last winter, spending an enormous amount of money and the length of a contract, you are taking a risk, and the Phillies took that risk when they signed Bryce Harper in the winter of 2019. The Washington Nationals also took a chance by not signing a homegrown talent such as Bryce Harper to a long and expensive contract.

At the time, I was okay with the move that the Nationals did, and it proved to be a good move only a couple of months later when the Nationals on the World Series, now only two years removed from that decision, it even looks better.

Our friend Stephen from Talk Nats.com said this "Hindsight is 20/20 and who knows if the Nats win the World Series with Harper in 2019 but they never advance past an NLDS with him. Fact is that as soon as he was gone the Nats won a World Series and all we heard about was the great team chemistry. That tells me that spending that money on Patrick Corbin and sticking with Soto, Robles and Eaton in the outfield was the smart move..."

If the ESPN report is accurate and that the Phillies are looking to offload a significant chunk of their payroll, other baseball teams, including the Washington Nationals, should be wary of signing players for long term deals during these challenging economic times. Since we are about to start the week of Winter meetings, one could only imagine what will be said and done beyond the closed screens this week.

Buckle up Washington Nationals fans, because let's end 2020 with a bang!