The general rule regarding the trade deadline and the rumors you hear associated with them is to take them all with a grain of salt.
A couple weeks ago, we raised our eyebrows when Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe first mentioned the possibility of Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich as Phillies targets. We blew it off and wondered where in the world he could get such a crazy idea.
Then last week, Ken Rosenthal of “Facebook” (he does TV stuff for Fox Sports but no more of the writing, as you know) wrote extensively about it, noting that while the Stanton rumors were probably far-fetched, it does appear as if the Phils really like Yelich and are interested in acquiring him.