Dom Brown not traded, but breakup with girlfriend aired over Instagram

Dom Brown not traded, but breakup with girlfriend aired over Instagram

Rumors started swirling on Twitter on Thursday afternoon that Dom Brown, the Phillies struggling 27-year-old outfielder, had been traded to the Cleveland Indians. Turns out these rumors were started by a fake account setup to look like ESPN's Jerry Crasnick. But this fake Twitter user wasn't basing his fake report off of nothing.

Brown had posted an ambiguous Instagram photo that may have led one to believe he had been traded.

It was a simple photo of Dom in a suit sitting in the clubhouse before a game. The caption along with it read, 'It's been great . Time to move forward. Thanks for everything #love'

What was he moving on from? Most assumed Philadelphia and the Phillies given the clubhouse context. Matt Gelb recently reported the team would likely attempt to trade him this offseason. But who gets traded in the middle of September?

As it turns out, after some more Internet sleuthing, Brown was talking about ending his relationship with his girlfriend, Steph Gayle. The two have a young baby girl together, London Skyler, and were even pictured on the team's official Instagram account on Mother's Day with the 'girlfriend' label.

Brown made the breakup clear in the comment section a couple of hours later to clear up any confusion, it seems.

You can see the two pictured together all over Gayle's Instagram account, as recently as three week's ago at Cole Hamels' Diamonds and Denim event.

Following along in the comment section of the original photo gets very interesting when a user with the name 'steph.gayle' left a comment saying she was blocked from commenting as 'steph_gayle.' The latter being the account of the mother of Dom's child. 'Steph.Gayle' was not pleased.

Not pleased one bit.

So to recap: Dom Brown is still a Phillie for now, appears officially single (which may have transpired via Instagram), the apparent mother of his child aired plenty of dirty laundry, and social media is never a good place to do any of this.

Our attempts to find any photos of Gayle on Brown's Instagram account proved unfruitful.

And the Phillies lost last night.

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You can see some of the Instagram's mentioned embeded below: