Portrait of a $330 million player:
- Hitting .249 last season, Bryce Harper placed 97th among 139 major leaguers who qualified for the batting title.
- His .496 slugging percentage ranked 30th.
- He was ninth in on-base percentage with .393.
- His 34 home runs tied him for 16th.
- He drove in 100 runs, which were 15th.
- He drew a major league-most 130 walks, which explain his uncharacteristic standing in on-base percentage.
Bob Waterman of Elias Sports Bureau, who provided Harper’s standings, alertly pointed out that “Harper and his new teammate, Rhys Hoskins, had remarkably similar totals last season. The only real difference is that Harper draws an amazingly high number of walks (#1 in MLB) while Hoskins finished just outside the top ten in MLB (13th).”
Hoskins, playing his first full season in the majors, earned $552,500 last year and will most likely not be much above that salary for the coming season unless the Phillies sign him to a multi-year contract to buy out his salary arbitration years.
When it comes to contracts, one other similarity should be noted. Last September Hoskins hired Scott Boras as his agent. You might know the name. That’s the same Scott Boras who negotiated the eye-opening Harper contract.
As stunning as the contract might be, it comes as no surprise in light of Manny Machado’s $300 million deal with the San Diego Padres. As soon as that deal was done, it was obvious that Harper would get more. Boras cannot constitutionally accept being No. 2.
In negotiating with the Phillies, Boras had to outdo Dan Lozano, who represented Machado. He did that, but he did more. In gaining $330 million for Harper, Boras eclipsed the $325 million deal Joel Wolfe of the Wasserman Media Group gained for Giancarlo Stanton in November 2014 when he was with the Miami Marlins.
On the other hand, the Stanton contract was done in November 2014 so it very likely has a higher present-day value than Harper’s $330 million.
Boras, who has not returned telephone calls the past couple of weeks seeking comment on his negotiations, apparently doesn’t care about being No. 1 in present-day value and average annual value of a contract. Harper’s a.a.v. is $25.38 million, but it falls short of other multi-year contracts, Machado’s $30 million, for example, and the $32.5 million a.a.v. of Nolan Arenado’s recent eight-year, $260 million contract with Colorado.
Boras cares simply about the contract number because that’s the one that stands out and people remember, just as he stands out when he silently declares: “I’m No. 1.” He is also No. 1 in ego. No one comes close.
Boras, though, is at his best in playing teams. He often benefits from teams desperately needing a significant player, and more often than not, that free agent is a Boras client.
The Phillies began the free-agent season thinking – dreaming – of signing Harper and Machado. No big spender in recent years, the Phillies were prepared to spend big this winter because they saw the possibility of capturing the National League East title, something they haven’t done since 2011. They missed on Machado, leaving Boras rubbing his hands and licking his lips. Harper wanted more than $300 million, and the Phillies gave it to him.
For me, the signing presented a wonderfully ironic development.
Andy MacPhail is the Phillies’ president. His father, Lee, finished his long and illustrious baseball career as chairman of the owners’ Player Relations Committee. Lee MacPhail’s last act as a baseball executive was to write a five-page letter to the clubs warning them of the perils of signing players to multi-year contracts.
Citing statistics, the letter said the performance of players with long-term contracts declined as the seasons went on. In addition, MacPhail wrote, players with multi-year contracts spend more time on the disabled list.
“The clubs have done some ridiculous things over the years,” MacPhail wrote, “but they are still free to make their own decisions.”
MacPhail presumably added that sentence to avoid being accused of collusion, which the owners began around the time MacPhail wrote his letter. Andy MacPhail was in his first season as the Minnesota Twins’ general manager when his father wrote his letter so he was in position to read it. However, 33 years later he has ignored his father’s admonition, signing Harper to a monstrous contract.
“We must stop daydreaming that one free agent signing will bring a pennant,” Lee MacPhail wrote. “Somehow we must get our operations back to the point where a normal year for the average team at least results in a break even situation, so that clubs are not led to make rash moves in the vain hope that they might bring a pennant and a resulting change in their financial position. This requires resistance to fans and media pressure and is not easy.”
I wanted to ask Andy MacPhail why he didn’t heed his father’s advice, but he didn’t return telephone calls. Were his father alive, he might take Andy out to the woodshed and teach him to listen next time.