8:10pm: Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets that the Dodgers did indeed claim Harper, but they did so purely as a means of blocking other contenders from landing him. Los Angeles had “no expectation” of completing a trade when it claimed Harper, per Plunkett.
2:03pm: Despite moving other pending free agents today, the Nationals have pulled back superstar Bryce Harper from revocable waivers. Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com tweeted that the Nationals had not reached any further agreements after their two earlier swaps, meaning Harper’s previously reported trip onto the waiver wire would not result in an agreement. More specifically, Fancred’s Jon Heyman tweets that Harper’s waiver period has expired, and no deal has been announced.
Harper, who’ll qualify for the open market at season’s end, had evidently been claimed by the Dodgers, per Grant Paulsen of MLB Network Radio (via Twitter). But he won’t be following Manny Machado in making a mid-season, pre-free agency move from the Mid-Atlantic to Los Angeles.
Having failed to work out a deal with the Dodgers, the Nationals revoked the waiver request rather than letting Harper walk for nothing. That means that the Nats will still be on the hook for nearly $5MM of salary between now and the end of the season.
To be sure, Harper could in theory be placed on waivers again later this month. But that’d almost certainly mean losing a franchise player for no compensation other than salary relief — an outcome the team just rejected by pulling him back today. Instead, the Nationals surely plan to issue Harper a qualifying offer, setting the stage for draft compensation if he does not end up reaching a new deal to remain in D.C.
Which team was it
Dodgers….it’s in the third sentence
Reading is some fundamental sh$$
You forgot to say “Bruh”
Thanks Bruh, and say hey to Howling Laud Hope for me…
You forgot to say “Have a nice day”
Go in peace
He’s a Rays fan. What do you think
That he might get traded
Dodgers
Dodgers made sense at least. Blocked him if nothing else.
Lakers
Jesus……
Wish the Dodgers got Harper. It would be hilarious if they acquired both Machado and Harper and still missed the playoffs. It would already be funny, but Harper would have been icing on the cake.
Yeah man that would be hilarious…get a life
You are salty.
I was hoping the same thing, Dodgers are the most overrated/overhyped team
The Rockies are only watchable once a decade
Username checks out
You’re clever
Haha
That means alot coming from the team with a negative run differential.
And what have both of you done to contribute to the Dodger’s success? Perhaps, you sat on your bum with two thumbs up in the stink like every other baseball fan? Get out of here with that hollow arrogance. You’re about as bad as Yankee fans.
Oh look the “we” police has showed up. wHaT tEaM dO YoU pLaY FoR
And I see you picked the Dodgers because they pulled out the biggest cane and you like to be in the splash zone.
Now if you lose this year, I expect you to give Koufax the ol’ spit shine with your tears.
You must be really bored with your time getting triggered at other teams fans online
Cry
You’re just an idiot
Dodgers were in the WS last year. No team is more over-hyped than the Nationals. They were once again the favorite of the “experts” to win the NL and by many the WS this year despite having not won a playoff series ever.
Said the Rockies fan, with no sense of bias.
What does it say that you sit outside of first for most of the season, you acquire Machado, you don’t improve and now you need Harper just to MAYBE make the playoffs? You’re probably not good enough.
^ This
Dodgers are only a couple games out of first, and they don’t need Harper and weren’t even trying to get him, pathetic attempt, how are your Orioles doing?
I agree lol
Someone else said it on a thread eons ago, but the best team for Harper would have been the Athletics. A hungry group of underdogs wanting to win? Someone like Bryce would like that.
I did. Evidently LA made a claim. Evidently Nats couldn’t or wouldn’t make a deal. I wonder if/what was said between the two teams.
Nationals will give him QO and receive a draft pick, no brainer. I imagine they asked the Dodgers for their entire farm. In my opinion, I would have asked for a few top 50 and called it a day. Now they only get a draft pick which is a lottery ticket.
Agreed. The Nats retain some fan goodwill and keep selling tickets for Harper’s farewell. It’s not like DC is under financial constraint. I’m curious what the Dodgers offered for him.
According to Cots the Nats are over the CBT https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRghSG2xROOkgctuzj56pUSP6zCxUUQ1i7LND0jnficQ0TPtIY8OhNl3AN_StqMvBCHnO_qOXKZeTbE/pubhtml
Rizzo just said in his press conference that they aren’t even sure where they stand because it’s so complicated.
Wow the GM doesn’t know where they stand on payroll. No wonder the Nats have no direction.
They know. They can tell the fans now that Bryce is like family to us and we don’t care if holding on to him meant going over the threshold (it didn’t).
The no brainer was to trade him in July. This was screwed up from the start. The writing was on the wall awhile ago. They werent going to the playoffs and instead of creating a bidding war at the deadline they now have to settle for a comp pick.
Rizzo et al can talk up that comp pick all they want, but it’s nothing more than a huge question mark that’s most likely to fade into obscurity.
I don’t know — I think $5M is worth more than a compensation pick. I know fans love picks, but it’s still baseball and once you get to the compensation round, it’s just a dice roll.
Yeah but it’s a dice roll that’s still worth taking if the only alternative is getting cash. The Nationals could definitely stand to improve their finances, but taking a chance to get a good prospect should always be more important.
Plus, I don’t like the idea of letting fan reaction dictate decisions a team makes, but letting Harper go for a little salary relief would probably rub a lot of fans the wrong way.
They only get a 4th round draft choice because they are over the tax.
Going to be wild if that’s what the Nats end up getting.
QO prospect better than nothing. Trout was a QO pick 😉
The Nats QO pick would not be in the first round like the Trout pick was. It would be after the 4th round since they are over the luxury-tax threshold.
“If a qualifying-offer free agent’s previous team is over the luxury-tax threshold, said team will receive a compensation pick after the fourth round has been completed. If a team neither exceeded the luxury tax in the preceding season nor receives revenue sharing, its compensatory pick will come after Competitive Balance Round B. The value of the free agent’s new contract has no impact on the compensation pick in both of these cases.”
It was a joke, but Thank you so much for clarifying! (I honestly didn’t know)
And it was nearly 10 years ago. Have the QO rules system changed that much? (Personally, despised the Type-A, Type-B you all seem to be in love with, and want to return)
LA blocked Milwaukee, they were looking for another SS
That’s the funniest thing Ive read all day
This is the fourth thread he’s posted a version of this comment on today.
And the 200th one he’s posted in the past week
Still is not getting old though.
Take a bow and end the running joke on a high note.
I had a feeling it was them.
It would’ve been fun seeing Harper and Machado in LA. Boras would’ve probably liked for this trade to go through, too. “He can handle playing on the biggest stage of the world!”
Bruh, the biggest stage in the world is on the right coast.
Not during Boras’ pitch when shopping him during his impending FA. I’m a Yankees fan.
You mean on the “white’ coast…bruh. that’s almost the entire demographic. Old baby boomer white people who watch tv all day so biggest stage is debatable.
Bruh, you being way insensitive. You’re gonna get smited!
insensitive? I not sure what you mean. Getting smited? by whom? the 3 uplikes you gave yourself on your other accounts?
Just telling you the “right” coast will only be the biggest stage until the baby boomers start passing away. Just a fundamental lesson in American demographics that’s all. You’re the one who made a statement acting like you knew what your were talking about…or did you forget?
I guessing you’re a white guy lol!
They should ban your ignorant racist ass!
A Belieber trying to throw some shade…you crazy as hell boy
I still have no idea what your pale booty is saying…boy/bruh/brohiem/brudda
Be still Casper, Be still.
Good God another loser worried about votes.
I had to google who Casper was. Sounds like you’re having a nice childhood…bro. Tell mom to hurry up with those bagel bites.
Steve, what’s on your chin?
Are you 5?
Bruh, you know it’s your mom!
That one was actually kinda funny… the chin joke
Hah,you know the saying “Left is right and right is wrong”he is going near Vegas(Out West) and not the Dodgers they 20 outfielders and against the Cap
Lefty loosey-Righty tighty
Boras will spin it however he pleases.
That and Boras would’ve loved not having a QO attached to Harper.
If the Dodgers acquired him they would still miss the playoffs…idk if I’ve ever seen flailing on this level. Ever.
It’s happened before but the bullpen has taken a 100 win team down 15-20 games.
“Idk if I’ve ever seen flailing on this level” Bruh, what about your mom?
Bruh, bruh bruh bruh bruh. Bruh? Bruh bruh.
At least my mom will be making the playoffs…lol
3rd degree burn…..
Remedial much?
Haha you’re not even good at trolling and that’s all you do…haven’t heard much baseball opinions from you…oh that’s right you dont watch baseball.
“Haha you’re not even good at trolling and that’s all you do.” -juicemane
Classic…
They had an awful stretch last season before the playoffs as well…I love seeing all these Dodgers haters calling them out already…stay classy bruh
Not a Dodger hater at all. Been rooting for them since 1970 but a serious miscalculation was made with the bullpen by Friedman. Last postseason, they relied heavily on Marrow and Jansen and then Marrow walk with no reliable replacement. Friedman was assuming that another diamond would appear but it didn’t. Jansen has not been anywhere close to last year and the rest have been inconsistent at best. Finally, they’ve been very inconsistent at the plate, horrible with RISP and 10 best in NL in BA. All that adds up to probably not making the postseason.
OMG! The “Bruh” thing is getting bothersome.
Pull the stick out.
How them Padres looking, Linda?
Great actually! Hosmer, Myers, Renfroe, Richard….really handsome men!
At some point (possibly as soon as the next CBA) there should be some discussion between the PA and owners about moving the non-waiver trade deadline to August 15. It’s clear that it takes much longer than 4 months for teams in the contention “bubble” to decide whether they’re buyers or sellers.
To play devil’s advocate, some guys don’t want to relocate with 6 weeks left in the season. I.E. Adam Jones
Yeah… but it’s 6 weeks. The players are already on the road for half the games and the players’ kids head to school come September. That’s 4 weeks of kids being busy,
In fact, relocating for 6 weeks could be better than relocating for 8+ weeks.
Or teams can simply be realistic and give up on the slim hope that they’ll make the playoffs and probably just get knocked out in a one game wild card. It feels kind of dirty just seeing teams at the end of the season just give their expiring talent to other teams for pennies on the dollar.
The Nats could have really screwed the Dodgers and just let him go and LA would have exceeded the 197 tax number with little chance of getting back under it.
I’m sure that the Dodgers have considered this before making the claim. Lebron James ain’t stupid.
Im sure the Dodgers said F it and decided if Bryce Harper could be handed to them for nothing it was worth going over. I bet if it happened they would have done whatever it takes to dump salary by Aug 31st too
They could have. But that would mean forfeiting the right to QO Harper and while I don’t agree with this line of thinking, the Nats FO seems to feel that letting Harper finish the season with someone else would hurt their chances of signing him. It was obvious from the get-go that they wouldn’t do what you are suggesting.
It really wouldn’t screw the Dodgers over. Surely they considered that possibility and were prepared for it before putting in the claim. I doubt it was purely a blocking move. If the Nats just let Harper go I’m sure the Dodgers would have happily inserted him into their lineup. LA probably expected this outcome but I doubt they’d be complaining if the Nats just let them have him.
No, the Dodgers seem serious about resetting their luxury tax penalty. If they thought the Nats might dump Harper’s contract on them they wouldn’t have claimed him. But they knew the Nats weren’t going to do that. This was a blocking move.
Rocket32 said the Dodgers were likely prepared for the “worst-case” scenario of getting Harper with no salary relief and who they’d have to sell off to get belong the luxury tax. And I concur with Rocket32.
That wasn’t a worst case scenario because it wasn’t a scenario to begin with. If there was any doubt that the Nats would just pull Harper back from waivers the Dodgers would have just passed. I imagine that’s why they passed on Murphy because blocking the Cubs from trading for him would have made tons of sense. But with him they ran the risk of getting his contract dumped on them because the Nats can’t QO Murphy and aren’t trying to bring him back in the offseason.
And as it turns out, I was right on the money about this being strictly a blocking move.
Does anyone know how much clearance they have? I’m pretty sure they were sitting with about $7-9mm when they swapped the even salaries of Dozier and Forsythe.
Dodgers would have been a great fit for Harper, since they’re a baseball team and he plays baseball.
Smile.
Dodgers had not intention of acquiring Harper unless Nats either took Kemp in return (along with a prospect) or paid enough of Harper’s salary that kept LA below the tax threshold. This was a blocking maneuver to keep Harper out of AZ or Colorado
Or…St. Louis. They are the ones who are in need of a current all-star, impact big bat!!
Rizzo is a joke always has been
He seems to have done the Nationals a lot of good – though his bullpen making skills are lacking.
It must be that Harper is also a decent relief pitcher and only Friedman knows it; that Friedman is just so much smarter than the rest of us.
LOL you really believe a relief pitcher in the August trade market would have a bigger impact on the team than Bryce Harper. You are reaching big
I am reaching, but only b/c Friedman has failed to do his job.
Friedman is the one pitching poorly in the bullpen? Weird. Haven’t seen him pitch an inning this year.
No good bullpen arm will slip to them in August
No, Friedman has amassed a pen primarily with cast offs and relievers with ineffective histories. He had enough time to figure it out and failed to act effectively. You really expect castoffs like Chargrois, Goeddel, to capably do well when the game is on the line? You really expect quality in high leverage situations from Axford, Fields, Baez? Apparently you and Friedman do. When Morrow left Friedman’s solution was to bring in Koehler who was injured before the season and he never moved to replace him with a quality arm.
And what does this have to do with claiming Bryce Harper to block a trade? You whine about it on every post. At least do it when its somewhat relevant. Believe it or not without Manny Machado and Brian Dozier replacing Chris K Taylor and Forsythe in the lineup this offense would be very poor. There are other areas of the team believe it or not. And you must not be watching because Goedell is on the DL and Chargois lost the opportunity for high leverage innings last week
It’s called the use of irony to show contempt, clearly understanding is above your pay grade. It’s relevant because their pen continues to falter and the point is, and let me explain it to you s l o w l y so you can keep up, Friedman continues NOT to address a longstanding problem. You conveniently forgot to address the amount of time Friedman has sat on his hands and failed to address the primary problem with this team. Do you understand? Is it clear now? Do you need you mom to help you out with this?
The offense is just as responsible for their recent struggles. Only a fool would put it all on the bullpen. How about bases loaded no outs in the first yesterday? Or 2 on no out a few innings later. You think Bryce Harper would have got the runners in because i do. Bottom line its 50/50 blame only and putting it all on the pen is ignorant. Offense has been medicoer with RISP
He whines every single post!
Here we go on another Friedman rant.
So much smarter he thought a bullpen of sloppy seconds and DFA claims would suffice for a contending team.
Brilliant man he is.
Much ado about nothing.
Figured as much. It would be one of the first contending NL teams and they would make the claim strictly to block rival contenders from trading for him. Dodgers don’t need OF’s and couldn’t have acquired Harper without going over the luxury tax threshold but they knew the Nats weren’t going to let him go for nothing so there was no downside to this move for them.
Dodgers should quit being cowards and let the A’s have him.
Now that’s one for the books…
Dodgers need relief pitchers
Wonder how Bryce Harper feels about not playing for a contender.
Kinda feel like the Nats made a mistake. Should’ve gotten what they could at this rate for Harper. Now he’ll be gone for nothing
Could put him back on and who ever claims him gets him or DFA.
Dodgers = ____blockers…lol Jelly cause it’s been 30 years since ya’ll punched thru
Trying to block other “contenders”…I guess that’s assuming the Dodgers are a contender. You dont see the Pirates doing this stuff and they’re contending just the same as the Dodgers.
The Pirates pulled Juan Nicasio back off revocable waivers last year and then ran him through outright waivers to try to avoid any team but the Cardinals or Cubs getting him when they were trying to save a few hundred thousand dollars.
The Phillies got him and traded him to the Cardinals anyway.
Teams do this every day in August — it’s just not reported all that often. There’s nothing cheap or weird about the Dodgers doing this, nor is there anything cheap or weird about any other fringe contender placing a blocking claim. It’s common practice when the club knows there’s no chance a player will be let go for nothing, which was the clear case with Harper.
I believe it’s weird and cheap because they are not going to be contenders of any high caliber if they can’t keep up with a team Dave Stewart built.
Think about that one
Teams have been claiming players on August waivers strictly as a blocking move longer than you have been alive. What is so “weird” about it now? The Dodgers are the worst NL team that has a realistic chance of making the playoffs this year so I’d argue it was almost imperative of them to do this, knowing that the Nats weren’t going to let him go for nothing. They saw what happened when they didn’t claim Verlander last year. Why risk a repeat of that?
What? Lol look at the Dodgers past month you non baseball watching poser.
3.5 games back of the division and 2.5 games back of the Wild Card. They are still very much in the hunt. So why should they not stop a rival contender from making themselves better when there is literally zero downside to making that move?
Oh and I watch plenty of baseball. I don’t know why you think that last part gives your comment more credence but it doesn’t.
Don’t confuse the poor bloke with facts.
Lol i guess I’m really making people jealous with my baseball expertise…deal with it mate. Chap, Dave Stewart built the d backs. Fact is the nationals are 4 games back of the Dodgers and they are selling like crazy. The Dodgers past month has blown and they traded for all those players. Those are the facts you snagged tooth English gentleman
“Baseball expertise”
Like how the Padres would be 4 games back of the Wild Card in late August?
Those darn Dodgers only claimed Harper just to block! Not only are they losers of the West and Wild Card, they a losers in the waiver claim department too.
Harper would never fit in with the Dudgers. he’s a free spirit and LA’s D-team wouldn’t this legate such.
Washington should have let him go to LA, maybe worked a deal for a decent prospect… they have just as much a shot at re-signing him if he’s there or DC, and the draft pick comp isn’t that valuable. Washington has already mailed it in for the season, GM Rizzo should be fired. Wasted the prime of Scherzer and the free ride on Harper, and they had so many other pieces but it just never came together.
LA wasn’t interested in trading for him. They were interested in blocking other contenders from trading for him. And the Nats weren’t going to just let him and his contract go for free when it meant forfeiting the right to QO Harper.