© Cary Edmondson | 2018 Apr 25
If you believe the reports, the Bryce Harper sweepstakes has improbably, and suddenly, become a two-team race between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants. The Giants weren’t thought to be serious suitors for Harper early in the offseason, but the slow market has changed things, and the Giants are now reportedly hoping to ink the former MVP to a “lucrative short-term deal.”
Whether or not he’ll be willing to entertain such an offer is up for debate. What’s perhaps just as interesting, is what Harper is weighing from a baseball standpoint when it comes deciding whether or not to sign with San Francisco. San Jose Mercury News and former KNBR.com Giants beat writer Kerry Crowley joined Tolbert & Lund on Monday afternoon, and speculated on that very topic.
“Probably the situation with him entering his prime and going to a ballpark that’s so pitcher-friendly and potentially having numbers suppressed for himself over the next few years,” Crowley said on what is factoring into Harper’s decision to sign with SF. “This is a guy who from day one, when he was 16 years old, he’s been on a national radar and he’s expected to perform at such a high level. We saw going into his free agency last season that the numbers dropped a bit. Would he be willing to sacrifice numbers for what the Giants would bill as team success? I think that’s probably the biggest factor outside of money that he is weighing.”
Crowley also believes are is some legitimacy to the idea that Harper is seriously considering playing in the Bay Area, primarily because the club’s brass met with Harper for four hours in Las Vegas.
“I think they’re probably very realistic in the fact that they hosted Larry Baer, Farhan Zaidi, and Bruce Bochy in Las Vegas. I mean they’re not going to have those three come out unless they’re really willing to entertain offers.”
“They can go back and forth over the phone and say ‘look the Giants are in this, they’re suitors’ but if the Giants went as far as coming out to Las Vegas to meet with Bryce — it was a four-hour meeting originally scheduled for two hours — that tells me he probably liked the tone of the conversation, was open to hearing what they have to say, and does see this team as a potential fit for him.”
Listen to the full interview below.