By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Though nearly every report seems to acknowledge that the Miami Marlins don't plan to trade Giancarlo Stanton or Christian Yelich prior to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, the connections to the Philadelphia Phillies don't seem to be coming in any slower.
According to Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports, the Phillies are showing 'strong interest' in different Marlins outfielders, presumably Stanton and Yelich:
The St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies are among teams showing strong interest in multiple Miami Marlins outfielders (Miami radio person Craig Mish first mentioned the Cardinals and Giants as a Stanton possibility and Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe mentioned the Phillies), and at least Marlins people seem to be viewing those three teams and one or two others as potential landing spots for Stanton eventually.
While potential opt-outs actually make Harper and Machado more attractive to perspective suitors, a potential opt-out from Stanton makes him less attractive. Stanton, who is a few years older than Harper and Machado, can opt-out after 2020, his age-30 season. If he's playing at any level similar to what he is in 2017, he's likely to exercise this option. This will be after Harper and Machado both reset the MLB contract record books and in the same offseason that Mike Trout could potentially be a free-agent. So the Phillies, who may just be starting to become a contender at this time, would be forced to either lose potentially their best player or possibly give a 10-year deal to a player that's over 30 years old.
If Stanton doesn't opt-out, it's likely because he's struggled to stay healthy and/or underperformed. It seems fairly realistic to think that Stanton won't have better health as he gets older. When you couple a history of injuries and the fact that he's so reliant on being able to generate other-worldy power, the idea of having to pay Stanton $118 million between ages 34 and 37 is pretty scary.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with the Phillies internally discussing Stanton and even approaching the Marlins to see what it would take to land his services. However, in my opinion, Stanton isn't the type of player the Phillies want to take up the largest portion of their payroll. Whether general manager Matt Klentak and others within the organization eventually feel the same way remains to be seen.
