HARPER’S DEAL FAR FROM A GRAND SLAM
Slugger’s record deal will mean spending 13 years in Philly, writes Thomas Boswell.
Best wishes to Bryce Harper. I’m not sure he’ll need them. But he might.
Harper agreed to a $330-million, 13-year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies Thursday. There’s a moral here somewhere. But is it one we really want to hear?
Harper took a chance, tested his freedom and found out his options. He risked leaving a home in Washington that valued him, athletically and personally, and wanted to pay him vast sums. But he wanted to explore his choices. Maybe be a Dodger near his hometown of Las Vegas. Or become a Yankee, the team his dad always loved.
Aren’t people supposed to have that option? Shouldn’t you be rewarded for that? Or at least be given several palatable choices? Doesn’t America cheer risk takers?
But choice is also a risk. And every place that’s not home is, by definition, the unknown. Now Harper is the star who left for just a few dollars more. His final deal is, essentially, the same or not quite as good as what he turned down from the Nationals. He now will play in Philadelphia, a town and team seldom, if ever, associated with him and his future until one by one the more glamorous suitors all said, “No thanks.” The Nats, their money spent and their roster completed, never circled back for a player who, if they met his price, might have hampered them in building competitive rosters over the next decade.
His drama feels like a parable, but not the kind that we usually tell little children at bedtime if we want them to sleep tight. For no particularly compelling reason, except that he got trapped without any other appealing destination, Harper left the only team he has known where he was a third of the way to a Hall of Fame career.
Five months ago, Harper turned down $300 million for 10 years from the Nats, albeit much in deferred payments, so he could discover his value. What he found was a shockingly barren market.
One losing team wanted him for 10 years: the 89-loss San Francisco Giants, weighted with bad contracts and aging stars. That’s winning the lottery? One great franchise that he’s always imagined himself playing for — the Los Angeles Dodgers — apparently offered Harper less than half the guaranteed money he’d already turned down in D.C. Well, you can’t save face that way. Then there’s Philadelphia, a mere 37-hour drive from his home in Las Vegas.
The Phillies have had a wonderful off-season, adding all-star catcher J.T. Realmuto, shortstop Jean Segura, outfielder Andrew McCutchen and closer David Robertson, while subtracting only first baseman Carlos Santana. Their starting rotation remains fourth best in the division, but with Harper aboard, they should be knotted up with the Braves, Nats and maybe Mets for first place all season. Nonetheless, Harper — supposedly the ultimate free agent at just 26 years old and dedicated since childhood to branding himself with flare and quips
— did not land in one of MLB’s half-dozen most glamorous cities nor even on one of its best squads in an era with 100-win teams such as the Red Sox, Yankees and Astros.
Harper has guaranteed himself a ton of money, but that was inevitable. His new average annual salary of $25.4 million will rank 11th in the majors this season. He made $22.4 million last season. If he’d negotiated with the Nats during a seven-week window last fall, he probably could have improved their offer by a few per cent or reduced the amount that was deferred beyond the first 10 years.
When Harper comes back to Nationals Park on April 2, he’ll face a pitching rotation where Max Scherzer ($30 million a year), Stephen Strasburg ($25 million) and Patrick Corbin ($23.3 million) all make almost as much or more per year. He left adulation and a city that loved him and that he claimed to embrace in return for a new start in America’s No. 1 town for boos. Whether fair or not, this 118day off-season circus, dubbed Harper’s Bazaar by agent Scott Boras when it began, probably will be remembered as Harper Bizarre. All along, cynics said, “Just watch: it’s all about the Benjamins.” Now Harper has signed in the city whose most famous citizen is the face on a US$100 bill.
Harper indentured himself to the Phillies for 13 seasons with no opt-out clause, so that he could edge past Giancarlo Stanton’s previous “biggest guaranteed contract ever” by 1.5 per cent and “Team Harper” could claim a record.
Many will assume that Harper, with his no-trade clause in Philly, has made his last baseball stop and will either make more noise than the Liberty Bell or end up with a giant crack in his reputation. But stories as rich as Harper’s are seldom so simple. Washington, especially as a baseball town, was always just a little too quiet, maybe even a little too cerebral and sane for him. Harper wants to play from the gut and to the crowd. He wants to be loved or hated, but always watched — intently, knowledgeably and loudly.
(Bryce Harper’s) final deal is, essentially, the same or not quite as good as what he turned down from the Nationals.