Mack Ade – Bryce Harper, Transparency

Good morning.

Is it too early to discuss the possibility of the Mets signing OF Bryce Harper to a long-term contract in the $400mil range, beginning in the 2019 season?

Yeah, I know $40mil a year for 10 years seems kind of crazy, but someday some baseball player is going to be paid this much and it might as well be the best hitter in the game (sorry Mike Trout fans… he is).

Can you imagine the benefits of having Harper in the same outfield for two years with Yoenes Cespedes?

My guess is that the final two years of the David Wright contract will be off the books by then. I share with Wright his neck problems and, trust me, you can’t play a 162-game schedule without future complications. That would save the Mets $15mil in 2019 and $12mil in 2020, which could help offset the cost of the first two years of a Harper contract.

Additionally, Juan Lagares’ 2019 $9mil contract could be eliminated via a trade and the third outfield starter slot could be either Michael Conforto (arbitration-1) or Desmond Lindsay (minimum).

Folks, you all know that Mack’s Mets started, and has the reputation as, a premier Mets minor league blog, but I have always been a proponent of filling your 25-man squad with players (especially your starters) that already have success at the major-league level. Baseball is like the pro basketball adage, where you need three great players to make a championship team. In the case of baseball, it takes three great bats, two great starters, and a killer closer. The Mets have the current pitching talent to add to this equation, but they fall two bats short of fulfilling this scenario beginning in 2018.

Maybe Conforto develops into a great bat. Maybe Amed Rosario becomes the all-star shortstop they have been looking for since Jose Reyes exited the team years ago for free agency. Maybe… well, Harper isn’t a maybe. He’s a killer bat and the fans will take to him as quick as they hate him now.

Will something happen during this Hot Stove season that could signal a move someday in this direction? No, baseball doesn’t work that way. If it did, I would trade both Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce for top prospects and sign someone like Carlos Gomez to join Harper and Cespedes in the starting outfield.

But what the hell do I know?

For the sake of full transparency, four readers have stepped up so far in December and donated $315.00 to Mack’s Mets. I thank these four from the bottom of my heart. As I have mentioned before, this donation push will end on New Year’s Eve, though we will keep the Paypal donation icon up on the site throughout the year.