Bryce Harper Rumors: How Phillies Can Beat Dodgers, Giants To Sign Outfielder

The Philadelphia Phillies are in danger of being left red-faced in their pursuit of in-demand free agent Bryce Harper with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants entering the race in recent weeks. They now have very few moves left in which they can come out on top with the outfielder said to be closely assessing his options.

The Phillies were installed as favorites after their meeting with Harper in January and until last week they were the front-runners to land the outfielder with no too much in the way of competition. Bleacher Report’s Adam Lefkoe even reported that they had come to an agreement over a deal worth $330 million over 8 or 10 years with a press conference scheduled for Wednesday, but it never came.

The Giants entered the race early in February after it seemed like the Phillies were the only team in the running with the Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres slowly pulling out. The Giants were installed as favorites for a short while but later dropped down the pecking order after it became clear they were only willing to offer a short-term deal.

Harper is keen to sign a long-term deal and also wants it to be a record-setting deal, one that tops Giancarlo Stanton’s $325 million 13-year deal that he signed with the Miami Marlins in 2014. And it looks like the Giants are suddenly ready to come close to meeting his demands.

According to Mercury News’ Ken Crowley, Giants CEO Larry Baer and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi visited Las Vegas yet again Tuesday to meet with Harper and his agent Scott Boras. The report claims this time around they were willing to negotiate a deal for 10-years something they were previously unwilling to do.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, are the latest entrants after seemingly falling out of the race in the early stages of the Harper sweepstakes. The Los Angeles franchise met with Harper and his agent Sunday but the offer on the table still remains unclear. There are contradicting reports with some claiming that they are willing to offer 10-years, but ESPN’s Buster Olney says they are still looking at a more short-term offer.

The emergence of the Giants and the Dodgers has flustered the Phillies hierarchy, especially with many claiming that they are now the least favorites owing to Harper’s preference of playing in Los Angeles over Philadelphia. The Dodgers could reportedly get the deal over the line by coming close to the Phillies’ offer.

There seems to be only one way for the Philadelphia franchise to save face after being confident about landing one of the two big free agents – Harper and Manny Machado – this offseason. Phillies owner John Middleton admitted much earlier in the winter that they could be willing to spend a stupid amount of money to land their preferred targets and it looks like the time for that has arrived.

The Phillies will have to pull out the checkbook and blow the competition out of the water and everyone knows they are capable to do that as they do not have any long-term financial commitments at the moment. Anything over $350 million over 10-years will make Harper the highest earning player in baseball history – in terms of both annual average salary and the overall contract.