Nationals owner doesn’t expect to re-sign Bryce Harper

Looks like the crowd is thinning in the Bryce Harper sweepstakes. Nationals owner Mark Lerner told 106.7 The Fan he doesn't expect Harper to re-sign with the club.

It all started when he shed light on their 10-year, $300 million offer that was rejected. According to Lerner, they didn't try to lowball Harper and gave him their highest possible offer from the jump and told them as much.

"Well, when we met with them and we gave them the offer, we told them, 'This is the best we can do.' We went right to the finish line very quickly,' Lerner said. "And we said, 'If this is of interest to you, please come back to us and we'll see whether we can finish it up.' But we just couldn't afford to put more than that in and still be able to put a team together that had a chance to win the NL East or go farther than that."

Since then the Nationals signed starting pitcher Patrick Corbin to a six-year, $140 million dollar. Some viewed it as a way to entice Harper to returning, some viewed the huge dollar amount as a sign the Nationals were moving on from Harper. Lerner was asked if Corbin's deal would prevent Harper from re-signing with the Nationals if he did come back to the offer on the table, and that's where Lerner's pessimisim about those chances really came out.

"We'll have to sit down and figure it out. If he comes back, it's a strong possibility that we won't be able to make it work. But I really don't expect him to come back at this point. I think they've decided to move on. There's just too much money out there that he'd be leaving on the table. That's just not Mr. Boras' MO to leave money on the table."

That sounds like Lerner and the Nationals aren't expecting Harper to return, and according to him they might not even be able to make the dollars work if he did.

Lerner was also very complimentary of Harper and what he called "the opportunity of a lifetime" and doesn't hold any ill will towards Harper leaving for a historic payday, so don't expect a tirade in Comic Sans.