NATS PLAN FOR LIFE AFTER HARPER
of Alex Rodriguez’s 10-year, $275 million contract with the New York Yankees in 2007 but pays an average salary of $2.5 million less per year than A-Rod’s deal.
Harper will be 26 when he hits the market, the same age as Rodriguez when A-Rod first became a free agent.
In 2007, when Rodriguez opted out of a 10-year, $252 million contract, Boras negotiated a $275 million deal with the Yankees that took A-Rod past his 42nd birthday.
Harper would require a 16-year contract, essentially a lifetime deal, to reach that age. Harper has 121 home runs through five major league seasons and hit 42 as a 22-year-old in winning the 2015 National League MVP Award.
The Nationals finished last season with a $155.5 million payroll, and they have already committed $87.4 million in salaries in 2019 to starting pitchers Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg and infielder Ryan Zimmerman.
“The Washington franchise has one of the most successful ownership groups on and off the field,” Boras told USA TODAY Sports in spring training this year.
“They certainly have the ability to conduct whatever form of business they see fit.”
The Nationals’ refusal to currently meet Harper’s request certainly explains why the Nationals plan to be one of baseball’s most aggressive teams at this week’s annual winter meetings.
The Nationals not only are strongly pursuing McCutchen but also Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale, according to baseball officials familiar with their thinking.
They also have engaged in trade talks with the Tampa Bay Rays for center fielder Kevin Kiermaier but consider the asking price exorbitant.
The Nationals adamantly refuse to include center fieldershortstop Trea Turner in any deal but are willing to discuss most of their prized prospects, including pitcher Lucas Giolito, and believe that it’s possible to actually acquire both Sale and McCutchen.
Giolito and Turner are among a group of five Nationals prospects who cracked Baseball America’s midseason top 100 prospects list.
While the Nationals are poised to be a perennial power under general manager Mike Rizzo, they realize the window with Harper now is two years.
The Nationals have won the NL East three times in the last five years but have yet to win a postseason series since moving from Montreal after the 2004 season.
The last World Series championship won in the District was in 1924.
The Nationals, if successful pulling off the trades for Sale and McCutchen, certainly would be the favorites to win the National League East again and rival the World Series champion Chicago Cubs as the finest team in the National League, led by a rotation of Scherzer, Sale, Strasburg, Tanner Roark and perhaps Joe Ross.
The Nationals still are seeking a closer, too, and hope to sign free agent Aroldis Chapman or Kenley Jansen.
If they manage to pull off the two deals and sign Chapman or Jansen, the Nationals would increase their payroll by $26 million alone for McCutchen and Sale in 2017, with a projected $20 million annual salary for either closer.
The Nats might be willing to absorb the increased payroll now, particularly with Jayson Werth’s $21 million salary coming off the books after the 2017 season, but unless Harper lowers his demands, they’ll be planning a future without him.
It’s still early, of course. Anything can happen over the next two seasons.
Yet unless either side dramatically changes its stance in negotiations, you might as well prepare Harper’s next uniform now, and the Nats can thank him for the memories.
FOLLOW MLB COLUMNIST BOB NIGHTENGALE