Corbin nets $140 million deal; Harper may be out

WASHINGTON» As with most things involving the Washington Nationals’ offseason, a day that was supposed to be all about introducing Patrick Corbin morphed into a day about Bryce Harper.

Washington announced its six-year contract with Corbin, a deal worth $140 million, and the All-Star lefty starter donned a No. 46 Nationals jersey as rotationmates Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg looked on from the front row Friday. After the news conference, general manager Mike Rizzo was asked a key question:

How might the big bucks he used to outbid the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies for Corbin affect the pursuit of Washington’s own big-deal free agent, right fielder Harper?

“I think they’re independent of each other. I really do. We’ve gone about this business of creating a roster for 2019, and at the end of the day, we’ll figure out whether that includes ‘Harp’ or not,” Rizzo said. “We thought it was good business — we had to fix the things we needed to fix. ‘Harp’ is a big part of our family, and we’d love to have him back.”

But in an interview Friday with radio station 106.7 The Fan, Nationals owner Mark Lerner painted a different picture.

“I really don’t expect him to come back at this point,” Lerner said. “I think they’ve decided to move on. There’s just too much money out there that he’d be leaving on the table.”

Lerner also described the team’s earlier offer to the 2012 NL Rookie of the Year and 2015 NL MVP, reportedly for $300 million over 10 years, as “the best we can do.”

The Harper issue hangs over all of baseball as the Winter Meetings are set to begin Monday in Las Vegas, but it’s not as though the Nationals have been waiting around. Rizzo’s moves early in the offseason include adding two catchers — one, Yan Gomes, attended Corbin’s news conference, as did first baseman Ryan Zimmerman — and two late-inning relievers, in addition to Corbin, a two-time NL AllStar who was 11-7 with a 3.15 ERA for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2018.