OPINION:
I guess Bryce Harper is going to have to take down that vintage Mickey Mantle poster that hung on his bedroom wall growing up and replace it with a Steve Garvey poster.
And he may have to lose that Mickey Mantle bobblehead in his locker in the Washington Nationals clubhouse — maybe replace it with an Ernie Banks.
Or how about a Ted Williams bobblehead?
Harper’s Yankee dream likely suffered a fatal blow with the news that home run king Giancarlo Stanton was traded by the Miami Marlins to the New York Yankees — the team that many had penciled in as Harper’s new home once he enters free agency after the 2018 season.
Why? Because they’re the Yankees. They had the money. They had the need. And they had a lock on Harper’s heart growing up. “Pinstripes are in his blood,” his grandfather, Jim Brooks, said in the Harper book, “The Last Natural.”
Well, the Yankees, who are now committed to paying Stanton $243 million over the next 10 years, don’t have as much money as they did before the weekend. And while they are still the deep-pocketed Yankees, their general manager, Brian Cashman, doesn’t spend money recklessly like old boss George Steinbrenner.
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According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, when Alex Rodriguez opted out of his contract after the 2007 season, Cashman wanted to let him go, rather than resign him. He was also against the deals for Gary Sheffield and Randy Johnson, but was overruled by ownership. Cashman doesn’t seem likely to add what will possibly be a $500 million free agent deal for Harper on top of the Stanton contract and the rest of their payroll. That luxury tax would likely make the Harper contract a luxury Cashman chooses not to afford.
They don’t have need, either, with the emergence of the young Yankees this season, led by slugger Aaron Judge. Now they’ve added Stanton to a team that won 91 games this past season and went to the seventh game of the American League Championship Series.
Do the math, and it looks like Harper will need a blood transfusion.
Reason dictates that the Yankees will now be out of the Harper business when the young Nationals superstar goes on the market. Of course, his agent, Scott Boras, was having none of that.
After all, Cashman didn’t get in the way of Boras when he got the Steinbrenners to give Rodriguez another $275 million in 2007 — a contract the organization would regret after Rodriguez’s season-long suspension in 2014 for using performance-enhancing drugs.
“A Bronx opera … The Three Tenors … Hal’s (Steinbrenner’s) genius, vision,” Boras wrote in an email to The Athletic web site. “Alone the three were stars … now a galaxy of international popularity.”
Boras followed that up with these comments to the New York Post, “I didn’t say specific players … just that Hal has a love for [the] arts and I am sure he would love the Three Tenors.”
Notice he didn’t say Brian.
I’m sure Boras’ other baseball owner pal, Ted Lerner, won’t appreciate that email and comments. He might want to present his own opera starring Harper when Boras makes his annual winter trip to Lerner’s Palm Spring home to pawn off some Boras free agents on the Nationals owner.
Is there a Bryce Harper opera in Washington’s future?
The Stanton trade to the Yankees is certainly good news for Nationals fans, seemingly eliminating the most desirable of the markets that might bid on Harper when the 2015 National League Most Valuable Player becomes a free agent at the end of the 2018 season. As far as we know, he didn’t grow up in Las Vegas dreaming of playing for the Chicago Cubs or Los Angeles Dodgers or Boston Red Sox or the other teams that could compete for Harper. The departure of the Yankees would appear to level the playing field for Washington.
Actually, the playing field should tilt in Washington’s favor, because they are the only team that can talk to Harper about a contract now and until he declares free agency. A contract extension, though, seems unlikely. Boras’ email would indicate that the Nationals seats won’t be any better than anyone else who want to be part of the Scott Boras production of the Threepenny Opera next fall.
• Thom Loverro hosts his weekly podcast “Cigars & Curveballs” Wednesdays available on iTunes, Google Play and the reVolver podcast network.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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