I’ll admit it. I wanted Bryce Harper to sign with the Giants when he was a free agent in 2018. I even wrote an open letter pleading him to wear orange and black. But not in an obsessive way -- that would be weird.
Nonetheless, he ultimately signed with the Philadelphia Phillies signing a 13-year, $330 million contract, meaning the Giants once again were labeled the bridesmaid. But what if Harper was still given a shot to play in San Francisco? Barstool Sports’ Jared Carrabis doesn’t hate the idea.
“You can’t rule the Giants out with Bryce Harper,” Carrabis recently said on Balk Talk. “I mean, that dude continues to just sit in Philly while they promised him the world. Like, ‘Hey, we’re going to build around you,’ and the next thing you know, they demolish the entire core around him. At some point, he needs to be like, ‘Hey, get me out of here.’”
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The Giants offered Harper a 12-year, $310 million contract before he chose the Phillies. They were willing to go higher on the monetary side to appease the California state taxes.
During his first campaign in Philly, it appeared anything that could go wrong with the Phillies, did. Injuries got the best of them. The Phillies finished fourth in the NL East with an 81-81 record under now Giants manager Gabe Kapler.
Harper did OK during his debut in Philly, hitting a respectable 35 home runs but he didn't come anywhere near his insane numbers from his 2015 MVP campaign.
The Nats, of course, went on to win the 2019 World Series. The celebrations quickly turned into unnecessary bashing on the six-time All-Star.
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“He wants to win, too,” Carrabis said. “That’s a dude that is dying to win a championship, especially after the Nationals win one the second that he leaves, which I always thought his treatment was unfair. The people that were like rubbing it in his face like it was his fault or something like that or that he hampered the team.”
That wasn’t the case. Harper wanted to win.
Harper spoke to Carrabis and NBC Sports California's Dallas Braden back in May on the “Starting 9” podcast and explained why he didn’t want to go to San Francisco.
"My fear with San Fran was all their guys are kind of done," he said on the podcast. "Posey was going to be gone possibly, or he was going to move to first base. Belt only had like two years left (on his contract), so he was going to be gone possibly. Crawford, where was he going to be? He's a great shortstop."
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Harper also said he didn’t want to be in the middle of a rebuild, which is where the Giants were at during that time.
It was a bummer for the Giants not to land the 2015 NL MVP, but president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi quickly started on his Plan B. Perhaps one day the Giants could revisit the relationship.