Bryce Harper is every millennial bros’ favorite baseball player. He’s 23 years old, brash, fun, progressive, is hopeful to make baseball fun again and is, arguably, the best ballplayer in the game at this moment. And while Harper still has some time before he hits the open market as a free agent after the 2018 season, much like any once-in-a-generation talent, people are speculating what his future plans might hold and just how much he’ll sign for?
The general consensus is, of course, that Bryce will wind up wearing Yankee pinstripes after inking a massive deal that will absolutely become the biggest in the history of sports—but you won’t believe what longtime respected baseball writer Jon Heyman wrote in a recent column of his about the topic.
Per Today’s Knuckleball:
But the issue with Harper is not just his supreme talent – he’s generally seen as one of the two best players in the game, along with Mike Trout – but also his stunning youth. That the sides haven’t seriously talked may be a reflection on the fact there’s thought to be no common ground. Or maybe it’s just an assumption that there’s none. Maybe the Nats have heard the whispers that the asking price may be $40 to $50 million a year, and perhaps for 15 years (that could make it as much as an astounding $750 million).
Boras in a phone interview spoke of the specialness of Harper but said he “didn’t want to get into the pricing.” Which may be how things are going with the Nats.
Dude, that is INSANITY!
Yes, Harper’s agent, Scott Boras, is known to inflate the prices of his clients—hell, he recently did it to the Nats by scoring pitcher Stephen Strasburg a 7-year, $175 million extension—but I’m pretty sure that Heyman just added $250 million onto the speculation of the reigning NL MVP getting around $500 million on his next deal.
Seriously, Google “Bryce Harper Contract” and see if you can find ANYWHERE that anyone else thinks the dude is signing for three-quarters of a billion dollars.
Now, in saying that, if I were any team who wanted to get fans to the stadium and lock up the premier talent in the sport for the next decade-in-a-half, I’d pay Bryce $550 million over 15 years, become the laughingstock of sports and light my cigar with a $20 bill anytime he went to the dish. That’s some money well spent right there.
Regardless of what he ultimately signs for, that chart above shows that, based off of MLB service years, Bryce Harper will most likely end up in the $35 million/year range. Oh. My. Goodness.