Free agent Bryce Harper is the talk of the town right now. With Manny Machado almost certainly signing a $300 million, 10-year deal with the San Diego Padres, Harper is the other big ticket name still looking for a team to call home, and there is some stiff competition vying for him to put pen to paper.
Still in contention are the San Francisco Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Padres, and his old team, the Washington Nationals. Rumors doing the rounds have stated that Harper has already turned down multiple $300 million deals, indicating he is looking for a record-breaking contract that will beat out Machado’s reported deal with the Padres, as well as Giancarlo Stanton’s 2014 deal for $325 million in 13 years.
One of those offers reportedly came from the Nationals, according to a previous report by the Inquisitr . Although they’re still trying to convince Harper to return to the side, they’re not willing to go any higher than that.
Then come the rumors that Harper doesn’t like the Phillies option, one that was denied by a source close to the outfielder. One of the reasons cited for his dislike of Philadelphia is the distance between the Pennsylvania city and his home town of Las Vegas.
But according to a tweet by MLB insider Jon Heyman, Harper may have the most practical reason yet for hesitating to head to the San Francisco Giants.
Harper is, after all, a leftie, and Heyman points out that the Giants’ home ground isn’t exactly conducive to a left-handed hitter.
“If the #SFGiants got the meeting and are still in, they surely showed a willingness to go long and aren’t adhering to that short-term theory. It’s a great city and great org, but they are “in transition” and Oracle is the toughest in MLB for a lefty slugger. Those are hurdles,” Heyman wrote.
It’s certainly something Harper might be taking into consideration, given how it could affect his game and confidence if he is stuck on a field that causes discomfort for him for the next decade, whatever the payout might be.
Despite initial reports that the Padres were done offering huge piles of money to any more players after signing Machado, it appears they are also still in the running, and willing to offer even more to Harper than they did to Machado. This could give Harper another option to get close to his home town as well if the Giants aren’t going to cut it for him. It’s certainly a good deal closer than Philadelphia.
For his part, Harper isn’t giving anything away with regards to his most likely signing option, and in the meantime the rumors and speculation are running rampant.
