White Sox may be a surprise suitor in Harper sweepstakes
CARLSBAD, Calif. — During his well-attended press briefing at the general managers meetings, agent Scott Boras spoke about the teams that aren’t publicly committed to the Bryce Harper sweepstakes.
Boras gave one of his favorite lines, saying it’s “not a regatta, it’s a submarine race.” In other words, teams that will be in on Harper aren’t necessarily going to announce it to the media and let other teams know their interest.
When informed of Boras’ comment, White Sox GM Rick Hahn laughed.
“That’s our style, you know that,” Hahn said. “We tend to be under the radar. That fits with the submarine, right?”
Right. Hahn later said he had not spoken to Boras at the meetings and declined to address their interest in Harper, who reportedly is hoping to surpass Giancarlo Stanton’s record $325 million deal.
“I don’t want to go down the path of talking about any free agents or individual players,” Hahn said. “We’ve been in contact with a wide variety of agents and certainly other clubs since we’ve been down here, gathered together as much information as we can, head back to Chicago and circle back over the weekend and next week and hopefully make some progress toward some acquisitions.”
The next day, a photo of Harper’s name and number next to the Sox logo from an LED ribbon inside the United Center went viral. Did that mean the Sox were bringing Harper to town to announce his signing? Was a worker at the UC just trolling Sox fans?
No one could say exactly what was going on, but the Harper sweepstakes will take a while. The idea of Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf shelling out that kind of money for a player represented by longtime nemesis Boras seems far-fetched, as does the notion of Harper signing with a 100-loss team.
But who knows? If the Yankees, Dodgers and Cubs aren’t all-in on Harper, as seems to be the case, perhaps the Sox can be the submarine team.
It’s going to be a long, crazy winter, and people are going to look for clues anywhere they can, even if they make no sense.
JAPAN 12, MLB ALL-STARS 6: In Tokyo, Yuki Yanagita had a home run and four RBIs as Japan scored the first nine runs and beat the MLB All-Stars to open a 2-0 lead in the six-game exhibition series.
Yanagita, who hit a game-ending two-run homer in the opening 7-6 win, had an RBI single in the first off Erasmo Ramirez at the Tokyo Dome and hit a two-run homer in the third for a 5-0 lead.
Yanagita singled in another run against Brian Johnson in a fourrun fifth as Japan went ahead 9-0.
“I thought tonight’s game actually turned early,” MLB manager Don Mattingly said. “They were able to score early. We came out and got first and third and couldn’t score early and we lost momentum right there.”
National League Rookie of the Year finalist Juan Soto homered for the second straight game, a fifth-inning home down the leftfield line that drove in the first run for the MLB All-Stars, who were the home team.
Enrique Hernandez hit an RBI groundout in the seventh and Kevin Pillar followed with a runscoring single. J.T. Realmuto hit a three-run homer in the eighth against Yu Sato.
The series continues today with another game in Tokyo, followed by one game in Hiroshima on Tuesday and two games in Nagoya on Wednesday and Thursday.