Winners and losers in wake of Harper deal
The most anticipated free agency in baseball history — a decade in the making, really — is finally over.
And a tectonic shift like Bryce Harper’s $330 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies doesn’t just happen without some significant tremors touching so many parts of the game.
From the snake pit that will be the National League East to an entertainment capital of the world that missed its chance on landing one more superstar, Harper’s Broad Street bonanza touches more franchises than it misses.
With that, let’s look at some winners and losers that don’t include the Phillies.
Loser: The NL East
It’s not so much that Harper’s former mates with the Nationals must cower in fear that their 2012 Rookie of the Year and 2015 NL MVP will face them 19 times. It’s just that the Phillies have truly signaled that it’s on — they’re ready to hit the afterburners after going from 66 to 80 wins between 2017 and 2018.
Even with the perpetually miserable Miami Marlins at the bottom, this might very well be baseball’s Group of Death. The Nationals and Phillies showed this winter they will spend both big money and prospect capital to go for it now.
Washington will face an interesting test in seeing how much of its fan base was rooted in Harper love, rather than general Nats fandom. The on-field product should still be excellent, however: GM Mike Rizzo has wisely tied the club’s prosperity to deep and potentially dominant starting pitching. They get six seasons of Juan Soto, who benefited greatly from Harper’s tutelage, for a relatively cheap price.
The Braves and Mets also got better, but their intentions are far from clear. Atlanta’s nebulous corporate ownership never came near this winter’s bigbucks buys, despite clean future ledgers and the fact their “win curve” suggests the time might be now.
As for the Mets, new GM Brodie Van Wagenen made them better, but it’s also unclear how in it to win it the club will ever be, so long as it’s helmed by the Wilpon regime.
The Marlins? This is going to hurt for a while.
Winner: ESPN, MLB Network and MLB
Let’s face it: Two of the game’s youngest, most accomplished and recognizable stars heading to the West Coast would not have been great for business. With Harper staying on the East Coast, his greatest exploits will occur while most of the baseball-watching public is awake. His Phillies will certainly be a staple on “Sunday Night Baseball,” along with ESPN’s midweek offerings.
Call it East Coast Bias if you must, but both Harper and Machado playing more than 100 of their games out West — the majority of those starting after 10 p.m. ET — would not have been great for the game.
Draw: Scott Boras
He wrested the “biggest contract ever” title away from agent Joel Wolfe, who got $325 million for Giancarlo Stanton and $260 million last month for Nolan Arenado. Now it is Boras who again owns the top guarantee, a standard he set in 2000 with the landmark $252 million pact for Alex Rodriguez.
Yet Boras was not able to crack $30 million a year for Harper, which is a relative stunner. He could not finesse the Dodgers, Padres and Giants into long-term commitments for Harper that both matched the Phillies’ commitment and mitigated the punishing state taxes in California.
Baseball is changing and Boras is doing his best to fight the hyper-optimization of the game by luring as many big spenders into the mix as possible. But the man who once could make a market out of a molehill is finding the going tougher.
Winner: Most of the Dodgers’ roster
Goodness, the Dodgers would have been punishing with Harper in right field, backed by a deep and diverse lineup and a pitching staff that’s about 10 strong in quality starters.
But with free agents Harper and A.J. Pollock ensconced in center and right field, that certainly would have made for quite a juggling act for manager Dave Roberts. Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez, Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy would have been passed around the diamond and in and out of the lineup in jarring fashion.
Make no mistake: Any team would kill to have that problem. But the Dodgers have gone to consecutive World Series with these guys as virtually everyday players. That already delicate balance won’t be upset any further.
Winner: Farhan Zaidi
Jumping from the Dodgers’ front office, which still hasn’t committed more than $80 million to a free agent, to the Giants, Zaidi has embarked on a rebuild that will surely be methodical.
But the Giants traditionally don’t roll that way. They like keeping Oracle Park full, pride themselves on the number of “meaningful” games they’ve played since moving to China Basin in 2000 and love their stars, be it Bonds or Buster or MadBum.
So here was Zaidi, forced to tag along on a trip to Las Vegas last week in an effort to woo Harper, knowing that committing $300 million or so to one player while his club is years away from meaningful contention goes against everything he’s ever done.
And the Giants, according to NBC Sports Bay Area, did extend an offer north of $300 million, though they probably realized it fell far short of whatever Philly was willing to commit.
Not sure if we’d describe this as Zaidi winning a “power struggle,” necessarily. But suffice to say, Zaidi still gets to build the Giants in his image.