The Nationals have avoided arbitration with right fielder and 2015 NL MVP Bryce Harper, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that Harper will receive a hefty $13.625MM salary — a massive raise over his $5MM salary from the 2016 season. Harper’s raise shattered the $9.3MM projection of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz and stands out as the largest raise ever given to a position player that is entering his third year of arbitration eligibility. Harper will be arb-eligible once more next winter and is a free agent following the 2018 season.
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Pacing themselves as to the AAV they are gonna need to offer?
Trade him to the Yankees for a bucket of those Top 100 prospects.
Why would NY do that when they have a good chance of signing him in a couple of years without having to trade anyone? (I’d prefer Machado over Harper personally)
I’d give the Yanks a 25% chance of signing him, with the Dodgers, RedSox and Nationals also around the same level. The Yanks’ odds of signing Harp would go up a lot if they were to have him for 2 years before FA.
I’d put the Sox at 0% to sign him. If we didn’t replace Ortiz’s production I highly doubt they would try to get Harper for an outfield that will already have Betts and Benintendi. I assume Bradley will be gone by then but still.
Agree with DLo, I’m pretty sure the Red Sox are just fine with Betts in RF
Why would it go up a lot if they had him for 2 years? You sound like a nats fan who just wants some prospects for him before he walks.
I doubt the Red Sox will be in play for Harper’s services when he becomes a free agent in 2 years. Guys like Betts, Bogaerts, Bradley and even Benintendi will start getting very expensive by that point. The Nationals seem unwilling to discuss a long-term extension with Harper to this point, so I doubt they’ll be retaining him as well. It might be a 2 horse race between the Yankees and Dodgers, but even the Dodgers have payroll constraints moving forward (not to mention the huge debt the team is in that has to start being paid back in chunks), and most likely won’t be able to pay Harper what it’s going to take to sign him. With that said, if they do figure a way to have enough payroll to offer him a contract, the Yankees probably have the upper hand (as of right now anyways). That’s right in the Yankees window of perceived contention, he grew up a huge Yankees fan (Mantle is is favorite player of all time and he wears 34 as a tribute to him, they add up to #7 obviously), and the Yankees will definitely have the money to pay him. With all that said though, if it was between Machado and Harper, I’d prefer the Yankees go after Machado (they’ll have the money for both though).
Because you automatically have the chance to sign to an extension by having him on your team, ergo, a higher chance to resign.
Yanks are notorious for not negotiating extensions
Dark house is the Phillis in two years the phillies young group will be in place and still somewhat cheap and they are sitting on a ton of TV revenue . Will be interesting I see what happens with that 2018 FA class
Just curious how you think they will be able to afford both if they wanted. That’s probably gonna come in somewhere close to 800 mil – 1 billion for the two of them.
Because if the Nats know they won’t resign him, they have two choices: try to trade him for prospects, or tag him with a qualifying offer at the end of ’18 and get draft pick compensation from whom ever signs him. A team who is willing to trade prospects during the ’18 season is going to put themselves first in line at signing him long-term, plus if he’s traded mid-season, he can no longer be tagged with the qualifying offer, meaning anyone can sign him without loosing a draft pick.
If a team like NYY is willing to part with a couple of top-end prospects, they can “get in line” earlier than anyone else. That’s why some team might trade prospects for him. Not saying it’ll happen, but that’s the logic anyway.
As driftcat mentioned above, I just can’t picture the Yankees trading for Harper IF they want to sign him in that offseason. That could all depend on their record of course during the deadline and how their OFers are doing at the time.
If the Nationals feel they won’t re-sign him, there’s no question they are going to trade Harper, though it likely won’t be to the Yanks if the Yanks want to sign him. Multiple top prospects >>>>>> 3rd round draft pick (if I have that correct, and someone correct me if I am not)
Also depends on if the Nats think they can win the WS in 2018. They are paying Scherzer and Stras $55MM/yr and 2018 could be the last best chance to go for it. I’m a Nats fan and can’t decide which is the right way to go with Harp assuming he’s only a 1/4 chance to sign.
Good point too. Maybe the Nats keep him to contend for a WS title.
Haper is NOT going to get anywhere near a 400 million.. I dont care how young he is. Trout… maybe.
If Giancarlo Stanton pulled down $325 million, who’s to say Harper won’t approach $400 million?
Giancarlo started one year later than Harper at age 20 and has by far better numbers than Harper.
By far better numbers? But a somewhat less dimensional power bat, who just had a pretty bad year on all accounts.
Wow. An Arbitration overpay?
They would have an exclusive opportunity to negotiate for 2 years. Plus, he’ll get used to the NY lifestyle (and he’ll love it).
How often does this actually happen? The yankees are still going to need to blow him away for him to forgo free agency
Nats just did it with Boras/Strasburg. It can happen. Harp isn’t so dumb as to turn down a ridiculous contract if offered to him.
The nats didn’t trade for starsburg, they drafted him. And I said that they’d still have to blow him away for him to forgo free agency, so you saying he’ be dumb to turn it down makes no sense. They’d have to give him pretty much free agent money for him to forgo free agency.
Also where are you getting 2 years? You think the nats trade him this offseason while they are pretty clearly trying to compete? Your whole scenario just makes no sense with the way those two teams have operated this offseason.
Yes the “NY lifestyle” is always in favor with your typical Mormon.
Glad to see the “team must trade player ” stupidity isn’t solely about the Angels and Trout.
No it’s typically a suggestion for teams that are not well rounded and are risking losing a player to free agency with nothing to show for it instead of trading them at an opportune time to restock their team with promising young players
The NY lifestyle. Freeze all winter…
He’s going to the Yankees when he hits FA. There is 0% chance he signs long term (or short term) before hitting FA. He has said he wants to wear pinstripes and he will.
Baseball is so long overdue for a salary cap that it’s disgusting. Model after the NFL. Simple. Institute a salary cap, college draft, and high school draft. Give everyone a fair chance.
Someone needs to recheck the math. $13.625mm is only a $8.625mm increase over $5mm, that doesn’t shatter the $9.3MM projection
He was projected to earn $9.3MM this year and got $13.625, so it does shatter the projection. He wasn’t projected to get a $9.3MM raise, that was supposed to be his total salary.
Harper seems like he has the ego and the competitiveness to want to be the first player to sign a $400 million deal. I think unless Harper is blown away by a huge offer with the Nats (or anyone who acquires via trade) I don’t think he signs an extension because that’s less likely while arbitration years are part of that negotiation and there’s less competition.
I honestly don’t know if he will get 400 million but just don’t think he’s got a shot of it until he hits FA.
What an absolute joke. Shouldn’t have offered him more than 10mil and just gone to arbitration. Never wanted a person to fade into obscurity more than I do for him. An absolute piece of diva garbage.
How many times have you met him?
I’ve met him and he was very engaging, respectful and great with kids. He is not at all aloof in person.
Yak yak yak hair flips and having fun he’s trash
Machado is a better player in my opinion. He just doesn’t seem to have the PR Machine working for him like Harper does. No way I would consider giving him a 400 million dollar contract. He is too streaky of a player and does his WAR really project that figure???
Will there now be a “Bryce Harper Rule” along the lines of the “Craig Kimbrel Rule?”
WOW… i personally hate harper. His slicked back hair, his temper tantrums on the field, his cocky attitude, and most of all his new trademark. (make baseball fun again) Why are you playing baseball if you don’t think it’s fun. I don’t know if this is just because i love mike trout, and i don’t want harper being compared to him. Trout is by far better than harper, no one can argue about that after harper’s bad season. TROUT OR HARPER? Like for trout, dislike for harper.
How is it that he gets such a huge bump on a dismal year? By that logic Jake Arrieta should have got a 20m arb salary this year because he won the cy young 2 years ago and was unhittable. The hype surrounding this guy is astounding.
he’s a major overrated player
Wow. I think that its crazy that harper got a bigger raise than what his 2017 SALARY was gonna be. I honestly hate harper and I think that his cocky attitude, his hair-flips and his temper tantrums on the field are NOT worth 13 million dollars. I think Mike Trout has 10 times more skill and talent than Harper. HARPER or TROUT??? Like for Trout, dislike for Harper.
That’s ridiculous. Trout is the best player of the decade, so in your scenario every other player stinks?