The Dodgers visit Philadelphia on July 15. The Giants two weeks later on July 30th. Phillies fans should get ready to show up and boo like they've never booed before.
Bryce Harper has never made it a secret that he prefers to play on the west coast and both San Francisco and Los Angeles appear to be heavily engaged in contract talks. It's become pretty clear Bryce Harper just doesn't want to play in Philadelphia.
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There's no other way to interpret the four-plus months of negotiations the Phillies have been having with the former MVP outfielder with no contract to show for it.
Blame the media, blame Scott Boras (Harper's agent), blame Matt Klentak and the Phillies front office — but it's painfully clear that anytime it appears the Phillies are making progress, or close to closing a deal, some other team jumps in and captures Harper's interest.
To spend time recapping the ups and downs for the Phillies in pursuit of Harper since September would take quite a lot of time, but it's clear just from looking at what's happened over the last couple weeks that the Phillies are being played.
Not long ago, the Phillies became the betting favorites (for what it's worth) to sign Harper after Manny Machado found a home and teams seemed shy to commit more than $300 million to Harper. Here's how things progressed from there:
If you skimmed over the above tweets, we'll make it easy for you. The Phillies were reported as a front-runner with a deal nearly done on February 18th. In less than 10 days, they are reportedly fighting for their lives to stay relevant with the Giants now offering the 10-year deal he's wanting, and his favored Dodgers seemingly extremely interesting following Nolan Arenado's extension (taking him off the free agent board next fall).
The Phillies slow and steady approach — they've likely had a 10-year deal worth north of $300 million on the table for months now — has allowed other teams to emerge, dissipate and reemerge.
Boras and Harper could simply say to the teams they prefer: "Beat the Phillies' offer and we'll sign with you." And perhaps that's what they did, meeting with the Dodgers and Giants over the last week after John Middledon's impromptu visit to Vegas.
The Phillies have been willing to give Harper almost exactly what he wants — short of a ridiculous $400 million deal — all offseason long. And reports saying the Phillies are favored could very well have been planted by Boras to try and stir the pot with other teams.
Philadelphia is getting played. It's hard to interpret otherwise at this point, especially if Harper spurns the city to sign closer to home.
This has never been more clear than Thursday morning, when USA Today's baseball insider Bob Nightengale wrote the following:
The Los Angeles Dodgers don’t really need him, but suddenly badly want him. The San Francisco Giants may not win with him, but he can be their greatest one-man marketing act since Barry Bonds. The Philadelphia Phillies may be the most desperate to acquire him, but no matter how much money they offer, are beginning to wonder if it even matters.
Agent Scott Boras, starting to receive the offers he envisioned when Bryce Harper’s free agency began 117 days ago, has begun circling back with other teams in recent days, three people with direct knowledge of the negotiations told USA TODAY Sports, seeing if they are in or out in the final hand of this high-stakes poker game.
These people, who declined to speak publicly since talks are on-going, have been told the Dodgers, Giants and Phillies have vowed to provide Harper with either the biggest overall free-agent contract in North American sports history, or the largest average annual salary anyone has ever received in the sport. [USA TODAY]
Nightengale went on to confirm that the Phillies have the highest offer on the table. He also said that "there have been a litany of theories as to why Harper is hesitant — anything from the city itself, playing for manager Gabe Kapler, avoiding facing his former team (the Washington Nationals) 18 times a year, to eluding the steep expectations of an intense fanbase. The truth may never be told, but the Phillies’ confidence in signing him perhaps is at its lowest point all winter."
Oof.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly why Harper so desperately wants to avoid playing here. But unless he decides to return to the NL East, Harper will become Philadelphia's newest J.D. Drew, Sidney Crosby, LeBron James and Eli Manning all rolled into one.
He will be hated, despised and booed with reckless abandon until he calls it a career.
The start of the regular season is now less than a month away. Eventually, this saga will end. Phillies fans can only hope the consistent and earnest interest in, and pursuit of Harper the Phils have engaged in for months is rightfully rewarded.
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