Nationals give Harris 3-year, $24M deal
The Astros need a new fireman.
Free-agent reliever Will Harris is in agreement with the Washington Nationals on a three-year deal, removing one of the most valuable, consistent relievers from the back end of the Astros’ bullpen.
The signing ends a fiveyear Houston tenure that took Harris from a relatively unknown waiver claim to one of baseball’s most sought-after relievers. Multiple reports late Thursday put Harris’ deal with the Nationals at $24 million across three years — a remarkable contract for a soon-to-be 36-year-old reliever.
Hopes for an Astros reunion faded after the team re-signed sidearmer Joe Smith last month. Smith, also 35, received a two-year, $8 million deal.
General manager Jeff Luhnow has made starting pitching his priority for the remainder of the offseason. He acknowledged, however, that if the team could not sign or trade for a starter, a dip back into the reliever market was possible.
Smith’s resurgent second half, coupled with the return of Ryan Pressly and Roberto Osuna, offer hope that Houston’s bullpen may weather the loss of Harris. But in reality, replacing him with an outside addition might border on impossible.
The reliability and durability he showed across five seasons was unmatched by any Astros reliever. As trust between the two men grew, manager A.J. Hinch often gave Harris a game’s most sticky situation, entrusting he could build a bridge from a starting pitcher to setup man.
A constant for the entirety of Hinch’s five-year tenure, Harris departs Houston
with one All-Star appearance, a franchise-record 104 holds, and more postseason appearances than any other pitcher in club history.
Luhnow claimed Harris off waivers from the Diamondbacks in December 2014, another one of the organization’s reclamation projects. In parts of three other major league seasons, Harris had a 5 ERA in 99 innings.
Relying primarily on a cutter and curveball, Harris flourished in Houston. He finished his Astros career with a 2.36 ERA in 297 innings. Only once in his five seasons with the team did he fail to appear in at least 60 games. Only once did he finish a season with an ERA over 2.98
Harris’ 2016 All-Star season formally introduced this former college corner infielder to the baseball world. Last season, he led all American League relievers with a 1.50 ERA, the lowest by an Astros reliever in any season.
Harris’ final act in an Astros uniform was completely unbecoming of anything that preceded it. Entrusted with a one-run lead in the seventh inning of Game 7 of the World Series, Harris executed a down-and-away cutter to Howie Kendrick. The Nationals veteran outfielder poked it off the right-field foul pole for a goahead two-run homer. Houston never regained the lead, and Harris was given the loss.
With his face red and tears streaming down his cheeks, Harris lauded Kendrick’s “championship play” and revealed this was a reliever’s “worst nightmare.”
“I’ll be better for it,” he said that night before walking out of the Astros clubhouse a final time.