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.
It sure sounds like Bryce Harper won’t be returning to the Nationals
“I think they’ve decided to move on,” Nationals owner says of the All-Star outfielder
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.
“When we met with them and we gave them the offer, we told them, ‘This is the best we can do.’ We went right to the finish line very quickly,’ Lerner told 106.7 The Fan. “And we said, ‘If this is of interest to you, please come back to us and we’ll see whether we can finish it up.’ But we just couldn’t afford to put more than that in and still be able to put a team together that had a chance to win the NL East or go farther than that.”
Harper hit .249/.393/.496 with 34 home runs in 2018 and made his sixth All-Star team in seven major league seasons. The first overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft by the Nationals, Harper is a career .279/.388/.512 hitter, averaging 32 home runs, 32 doubles and 102 walks per season. The 2015 National League MVP turned just 26 in October, and is one of the most sought after free agents this offseason.
Lerner’s comments came on a day the Nationals made a different big splash on the free agent market, introducing pitcher Patrick Corbin and his new six-year, $140 million contract, joining a stacked starting rotation that includes three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, who like Harper was a No. 1 overall draft pick by Washington.
After signing Corbin and also adding catchers Kurt Suzuki and Yan Gomes this offseason, the Nationals 2019 payroll is at an estimated $145 million per Cot’s Baseball Contracts for 11 players, plus another $42.7 million projected for the six players eligible for salary arbitration this winter. Cot’s estimates Washington’s competitive balance tax payroll to be $166 million for those 17 players. The threshold next season for paying the tax is $206 million.
After signing Corbin, Lerner said that might take the Nationals out of the running for a Harper return, even if the outfielder were to accept the original 10-year, $300 million offer.
“We’ll have to sit down and figure it out. If he comes back, it’s a strong possibility that we won’t be able to make it work,” Lerner told 106.7 The Fan. “But I really don’t expect him to come back at this point. I think they’ve decided to move on. There’s just too much money out there that he’d be leaving on the table. That’s just not Mr. Boras’ MO to leave money on the table.”
Harper is represented by Scott Boras, who is also the agent of Nationals players Scherzer, Strasburg, Anthony Rendon, Michael Taylor and Trevor Rosenthal.
As for Harper, his market seems robust even without the Nationals involved. The New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox were among the teams reported to have met Harper at his Las Vegas home already this offseason, per Yahoo! Sports. Harper will surely be a huge topic of discussion at baseball’s winter meetings, which begin on Sunday in Las Vegas.
How convenient.
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