Bryce Harper free agency news and rumors: The latest on where the Nationals star will end up next season

Washington Nationals managing principal owner Mark Lerner in a radio interview on Friday said he didn’t expect free agent outfielder Bryce Harper to re-sign in the nation’s capital.

Lerner was a guest on 106.7 The Fan radio in Washington D.C., and was asked about the team’s contract offer made to Harper on the final day of the regular season, a reported 10-year, $300 million offer, which was rejected.

As free agency gets going, players will be added to the pool of available free agents depending on whether their options are picked up or declined or whether they accept qualifying offers or not. While there are lots of team or player options out there to be decided on, most of them are probably going to be declined. The qualifying offer amount this year is $17.9 million.

This is a list of all the options (whether player, team, or mutual) that have been decided on thus far, and what their salary for next season is or would have been depending on the outcome. This includes buyout amounts as well, if applicable. The qualifying offers are listed as accepted or declined.

Baseball history is usually useful when it comes to the MLB offseason and free agency because it’s very good at reminding us that free agents are usually a double-edged sword. Thinking of signing a good player for five years? If you can accept the idea that they’ll be bad for the last two, you’ll be fine. Most small-market teams aren’t worried about paying All-Stars a lot of money; they’re more concerned about paying former All-Stars just as much money.

But baseball history is also useful in the case of Bryce Harper and other hyper-young free agent superstars. It reminds us that, yes, please, give players like this a lot of money. They’re rare freaks, and the odds are great that they will help your team for years and years and years. The last comparable case was Alex Rodriguez, and for all of his, uh, delightful quirks, he was absolutely worth the money on the field. He built on what will (eventually) be a Hall-of-Fame career, just like he was expected to.

For the last two seasons, one of my jobs has been to talk with Giants fans about their team. It’s ... been a rough two years. Once you get past, “Boy, they sure are lousy,” followed by five seconds of uncomfortable silence, the conversation needs fuel. This is why I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the possibility of Bryce Harper signing with the Giants, which understandably provokes strong reactions.

One of the lines that I read or heard, time and time again, was that the Giants needed to avoid Harper and start a full rebuild. It was a constant refrain, and the idea of rebuilding and spending money were presented as directly opposed to each other. Don’t sign Harper. Rebuild! Don’t spend more money. Rebuild!