» GIANTS STILL IN THE HARPER SWEEPSTAKES

San Francisco has the need and the budget to land the coveted outfielder

With one week remaining until pitchers and catchers report to Scottsdale, Arizona, the San Francisco Giants have yet to sign a free agent position player.

First-year president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has promised incremental improvements to the roster, but the Giants have appeared reluctant to back up the Brinks truck and enter the sweepstakes for high-profile free agents. Until now.

Multiple reports indicated Wednesday the Giants are one of the remaining teams pursuing 26-year-old slugger Bryce Harper, a six-time All-Star who has already turned down a 10-year, $300 million offer from his former club, the Washington Nationals.

A NJ Advanced Media report first connected the Giants to Harper before NBC Sports Bay Area reported Zaidi, Giants manager Bruce Bochy and CEO Larry Baer met with the star outfielder and his agent this week.

After winning just 187 games over the last two seasons and failing to generate buzz with this year’s crop of offseason additions, the Giants are at a crossroads. Zaidi has his eye on setting the Giants up for future success, but he’s working for a franchise that has spent the last decade doing everything it can to win in the present.

Would a Harper signing instantly provide credibility and turn the Giants into a National League West front-runner? No. In fact, they need more than one big talent to reverse their recent fortune.

However, the Giants remain a viable landing spot for Harper, especially if the two sides are willing to make a long-term commitment. Here’s why.

1. The glaring need for outfield help, buzz and power — Of the five outfielders on the Giants’ 40-man roster, no player has more career at-bats than Austin Slater, who is 83-for-316 in parts of two major league seasons. The lack of veteran experience is alarming, even for a franchise that’s determined to become younger and more athletic in the outfield.

Signing Harper wouldn’t just fill a temporary void in right field, it would provide a long-term solution for a franchise that has struggled to develop homegrown outfield talent for the last three decades.

Harper provides the star power the Giants are clearly lacking, and even if they don’t contend in 2019, his presence will sell tickets and his every move will become a story.

The Giants have finished second-tolast in runs scored in each of the last two seasons, and thus far, Zaidi hasn’t made any transactions that guarantee to move the club closer to competency at the plate. While Zaidi’s Dodgers had seven players hit at least 20 home runs last season, the Giants haven’t had a hitter reach that mark since 2015.

Harper has eclipsed the 20-home run threshold in all but one of his seven major league seasons and even in a cavernous pitcher’s park, he boasts the kind of power that will play along the shores of McCovey Cove.

2. The Giants can afford it — What would a Harper contract look like?

Agent Scott Boras is hoping to break multiple records with Harper’s next deal, and even in a depressed free agent market, the duo will have a chance to do so. Surpassing the dollar amount on the $325 million extension Giancarlo Stanton signed with the Marlins in 2015 is a goal, as is meeting the 10-year commitment a handful of players including Alex Rodríguez have received on the free agent market.

Even if signing Harper requires a 10year, $325-million-plus agreement, the Giants have the financial flexibility to handle a $30 million annual salary. Most teams in baseball do, but a new namingrights deal for Oracle Park will pay the Giants a reported $300 to $350 million over 20 years, providing additional cash flow for the franchise.

Though the Giants have a number of salaries weighing down their payroll now, a handful of large contracts (Mark Melancon, Jeff Samardzija) will come off the books after the 2020 season with more to follow in 2021. With most of the franchise’s top prospects set to begin the season in the lower levels of the minor leagues, the Giants can eventually surround Harper with cost-effective, homegrown talent and a few reinforcements by the middle of a long-term deal.

The Giants may not enjoy making a habit of surpassing Major League Baseball’s luxury tax threshold, but even if they do cross the $206 million payroll limit this year, they reset their tax penalty last season.

Still, there’s one primary reason the Giants should be wary of dealing with Harper and Boras and that’s the potential insistence of an early opt-out clause in Harper’s contract. If Harper signs and doesn’t enjoy hitting in a pitcher-friendly park 81 times per year, he may opt out and look to build his legacy elsewhere. That could hurt the Giants significantly in their quest to win with their next core, particularly because signing Harper isn’t a move that’s tied to competing immediately.

3. The long-term vision — At his introductory press conference in November, Zaidi didn’t promise he would build a contending club right away. The former Dodgers general manager has a longterm vision for improving the organization’s on-field product, and his early moves have reflected a commitment to patience.

Signing Harper wouldn’t demonstrate a sudden willingness to push for a National League West crown in 2019, but it would help open up another window to regularly contend sooner rather than later.

With Harper in the fold, the Giants could envision an outfield featuring Steven Duggar in center with Harper and 2017 first round draft choice Heliot Ramos manning the corners. The Giants could eventually plan for a lineup that would include catcher and top prospect Joey Bart as well as the jewel of their 2018 international signing class, infielder Marco Luciano. That’s a substantial amount of talent, but it’s a group that Zaidi can continue to build around over the next several years.

It’s impossible to project how prospects will pan out once they reach the major league level, but the Giants have high expectations for all of the players mentioned above and believe that Bart, Ramos and Luciano can all headline a future core.

Though it may take until 2022 or 2023 to become a reality, Harper won’t turn 30 until after the 2022 season.