Well, one of the big shoes has dropped to the tune of 13
years and $330 million. Bryce Harper is
on his way to Philadelphia, the city his wife apparently despises, likely
because his ego says he wanted to be the player with the longest and richest
contract in baseball history. Anyone who
has ever seen Harper blow kisses to a pitcher after a home run or flip his bat
knows that his ego is at least as large as his oversized paycheck.
What is interesting to me, however, is that if you do the
math Bryce Harper is actually not the highest paid player in baseball. $330 million over 13 years is just over $25
million per year. Now I don’t expect
anyone to launch a GoFundMe site to close the gap for the price Harper sold his
services and what other ballplayers are making, but man did his agent ever
screw him out of a lot of dough!
A quick perusal of salaries in baseball suggest that not
only isn’t he the highest paid player in the game. He didn’t even crack the top ten in
pay-per-year:
- Mike Trout -- $33.25 million
- Clayton Kershaw -- $33 million
- Nolan Arenado -- $32.5 million
- David Price -- $30.7 million
- Miguel Cabrera -- $30.5 million
- Manny Machado -- $30 million
- Yoenis Cespedes -- $29.5 million
- Justin Verlander -- $29 million
- Giancarlo Stanton -- $28.2 million
- Albert Pujols -- $28 million
- Felix Hernandez -- $27.3 million
- Bryce Harper -- $25.38 million
Now, to be fair, his addition to the Phillies lineup will
make them a near favorite to win the division.
The ballpark where he’ll be playing is known as a launching pad. That latter consideration is foie gras to his
ego, since inflating his stats really only matters if you’re going into free
agency, not after you’ve just signed.
Good luck, Phillies fans…let’s hope for your sake he’s more Mike Schmidt
and less Ryan Howard.
Many Mets fans are having a cow right now that he’s in their
division and what did Brodie Van Wagenen do to address that imbalance? Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t Bryce
Harper been in the division ever since his career started? Now Washington is weaker and Philadelphia is
stronger. Is there a problem here I don’t
see?
Yes, they could push the panic button and sign an Adam Jones
or a Dallas Keuchel or even aim to have the world’s best bullpen ever by inking
Craig Kimbrel. They won’t do any of
these things, of course, and pushing the panic button is usually not a good
business strategy. It’s how they bid
against themselves for Yoenis Cespedes, Jason Vargas, Jay Bruce and
others.
No, I think BVW has set them on a good path (injuries
notwithstanding) and for once even with multiple players down there is enough
depth to handle it. Now if only he could
provide that same depth for the starting rotation…Gio Gonzalez is out there and
wouldn’t cost nearly what Keuchel would….I’m just sayin’…
12 comments:
I am happy for him. It is the baseball owners that are idiots.
The moves in the off-season by the Mets have been impressive but they now over-shadowed by Philly.
New division favorite: Phillies
Now it is Brodie's turn to produce a better 5th starter
Bryce who? Just what are his numbers in Philly, including last year's k's there?
268 with 14 hrs in 50 games. CBS said lefties increased hrs by 8 percent playing at citizens, but that is against crap pitching, too.
Bryce, you must remember, now plays in lower tax Pennsylvania. I'll bet he nets the same per year as Mah-chah-dough.
Bryce's #'s in Citifield are not very special, around .276/.375/.505...Philly should make his home #'s around .290/.385/.580. If you have a big ego like Bryce, and want to be in the Hall someday, you don't come to the Mets - until they at least move the fences once more to make it hitter-neutral, rather than still pitcher friendly after 2 fence move-ins.
I know, I am repeating myself.
I asked some people today who would hit the best in 2019, Harper, McNeil, Conforto, or Nimmo. I was told by someone, Harper, because he plays in a bandbox. Put Nimmo, McNeil and Conforto in the bandbox, though, and Harper in Citifield, I guarantee you the answer would have changed.
My bet is that at least one of the Mets outfielders Conforto/Nimmo/McNeil will have a higher WAR and/or OPS than Mr. Harper at the end of the season.
Harper made the right financial decision. California taxes (Dodgers/Giants) or deferred $$$ (Nationals) does not compare to the Philadelphia offer. As much as I hate Mr. Boras, he wins again.
Phillies are now a much more formidable team.
I'm not a fan of Harper -- I didn't want him to become a Met -- and I think there's something "off" in his overall demeanor. But a very good, at times great, player.
As for the Mets. The narrative in other places in the blogosphere is so off base. I kept reading how the Mets are supposedly "all in" this year. What nonsense. Their payroll is currently at $181M, not counting the big money saved thru insurance on Wright and Cespedes. What's that savings exactly? I don't know. I think you could conservatively say it's in the $20-25M range. In other words, pretty much where payroll stood last season. And far eclipsed by Phillies and Nationals and, soon, the Braves.
What's different is that Brodie seems to be trying to put together a competitive team -- despite the restrictions. Whereas Sandy would just kind of shrug and hope for the best. Brodie couldn't buy a Machado or a Harper or even a Kimbrel (who will be overpaid, IMO), so he was forced to trade Kelenic if he wanted to bring in talent (as well as dump dead wood of Bruce and Swarzak). Dumping Bruce was a huge move; it looked like Mets were stuck with him for two more years. Brodie also brought in Davis, another young player, in the type of minor league trade that Sandy never made. So it looks and feels different to the fans, and to the players in the clubhouse.
Go out and sign another guy? That's a Wilpon issue, not a Brodie one. If he truly had resources, he would have never traded Kelenic in the first place.
Will Brodie's moves be enough for the Mets to win the NL East? I don't know. I think it puts them in the conversation, gives them a fighting chance. It feels like hope. And that alone feels new to me.
I am so glad that Sandy is gone.
Jimmy P
Fred Smith and Jimmy P, good points.
Jimmy, the Yankees would not take a move like that lying down, that much I know. I would love to see the Mets respond with something that would likely add as many wins as Harper just added for the Phils.
When you are adding in Bryce's impact on the Phillies, you also have to subtract whoever he is replacing in the lineup. Yes, his addition is a net positive for the team, but I don't think it makes the Phillies the 2018 Red Sox, either.
The Nationals had a nice team for the time that he played there, yet they didn't accomplish that much in the grand scheme of things, so we will see how the Phillies fare with "the ego" on their team. I believe the Phillies were projected as an 84 win team last week, so with BH on board, bump that up to around 88 or so. It puts them in contention with the Nats' projected total of 89, but that's just on paper.
Bottom line is the Phillies are a better team today then they were yesterday.
Ummm...didn't Atlanta win the division last year? Shouldn't they be ranked number one until proven otherwise? Plus they landed Josh Donaldson who wasn't there last year.
You are right, Reese......I see four teams in our division that can win 90 games this year, so it should be interesting. If I had to pick one today, I still like the Nats, but it is very close.
Those teams will likely beat the hell out of each other all year.
The Phillies still don’t have much pitching nor a deep bullpen, so they have holes. Atlanta is expecting Markakis to hit .336 again? They had to be one of the luckiest teams in baseball last year, and it’s hard to expect a repeat. Donaldson is being eased in? Why? Isn’t he healthy?
The Nats are leaning on talented young players and a strong pitching staff, so they are for real. To me, that is the team to target as a Mets fan. As for Bryce Harper, I see J. D. Drew all over again. It was stupid money all right.
James, you hated Alderson for years... LOL, can’t say I disagree with anything you wrote.
The Dodgers offered Harper $45MM per year, for 4 years. Wow. He turned it down. If he takes this $180, then he still has to make $150MM in ages 30-38 to break even. Actually, I think the better move was taking the big box of money and wonder if Harper can handle the booing.
But, $45 a year...
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