MLB Rumors: After Harper Meeting, Dodgers Back Up The Brinks Truck, Literally
The Los Angeles Dodgers, reporter Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com detailed in the middle of the night on Sunday, have met with free agent outfielder Bryce Harper. The report was a surprise, as the Dodgers have rarely been mentioned as a suitor for the star outfielder over the course of his free agency rumors.
Harper is expected to cost a new team as much as $30 million per year in salary, and on Monday, the Dodgers literally backed up the Brinks truck.
ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez recently tweeted a video from the Dodgers’ spring training facility in Glendale, Arizona. The footage captured an actual Brinks armored truck, one parked outside the front gates of the building.
“And here we go,” Gomez said in the video. “You could not script it any better.”
It’s unclear why the Brinks truck had pulled up to the facility, although its appearance probably doesn’t mean anything one way or another as regards the team’s pursuit of Harper. It’s unlikely they would be paying him out on any prospective signing in cash.
The Dodgers — according to reporting on Monday by USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale, per The Inquisitr — are one of three teams in on Harper, joining the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants. Other teams previously mentioned — such as the San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox, and Harper’s current team of the Washington Nationals — are now out of the running, Nightengale said.
There's always a bigger fish. The Dodgers re-entering the mix for Bryce Harper is bad news for the #Phillies https://t.co/ZcOacvPAVs
— Matt Breen (@matt_breen) February 25, 2019
Los Angeles and San Francisco are said to be offering shorter-term deals for Harper, with Philadelphia offering something more along the lines of the 10-year, $300 million deal agreed to earlier this month by Manny Machado. Machado signed with the San Diego Padres. Machado’s contract is the largest for a free agent in baseball history, and Harper’s agent, Scott Boras, may be eager to get his client a contract that breaks Machado’s record.
Sometimes real life is simply too much. This just happened at the Dodgers spring facility. pic.twitter.com/cBk8sbygfC
— The Pedro Gomez Foundation (@PGFoundation_) February 25, 2019
Bryce Harper has been with the Washington Nationals for his entire career, ever since he was drafted by them at age 17 in 2010. Harper has won Rookie of the Year and MVP awards with Washington while emerging as one of baseball’s elite players — although the Nationals have never won a playoff series in franchise history.
Nationals owner Ted Lerner said at spring training last week that the team had “moved on” from Harper. The Nationals added several players this offseason, including Brian Dozier, Patrick Corbin, and Kurt Suzuki. Even after that, however, various reports didn’t completely discount the chance of Harper remaining in Washington.
