LAS VEGAS — If anybody knows who's going to win the Bryce Harper sweepstakes, it's Scott Boras.
But he's not telling.
Harper's agent drew his annual crowd of reporters at the Winter Meetings on Wednesday and confidently stated how much teams around the league should want to back a dump truck full of money up to his client's house. Of course, Harper is expected to receive the biggest contract in baseball history, so his confidence isn't exactly misplaced.
The White Sox are reportedly in the running for Harper — as well as Boras' former client and the second-biggest name on the free-agent market, Manny Machado — and so Boras' thoughts are of particular interest on the South Side of Chicago. Unfortunately for those Harper-hungry folks, he wouldn't get into many specifics: not about contracts, not about teams, not about much besides how happy a team should be to sign one of the game's best players.
"I think that in the end, all organizations are going to look back on this opportunity," Boras said. "They’re going to look back on it, and they’re going to say, ‘What should I have done? How should I have done it? What steps should I have taken?’ These are pivotal moments. There are a lot of organizations and general managers that will be evaluated about what they did do or didn’t do when you have the availability of a player like this."
As for the White Sox general manager, he knows what kind of opportunity this is. Rick Hahn has used that word often this offseason, "opportunity," describing in what kind of instance the White Sox would make a big splash. And that opportunity is a player like Harper, who at just 26 years old fits in so well with the team's long-term plans. Installing Harper in right field for the next decade would allow the White Sox bevy of highly touted prospects to grow up around one of the game's top stars and form the perennial championship contender Hahn and his front office envisioned when they started this rebuilding process.
Hahn talks about every move the team makes as needing to make sense in the long term. It sounds like Boras and Harper are thinking in a similar fashion.
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"I think the effectiveness of ownership in meetings is one where they talk about histories, they talk about their ability to create a winning modality that is consistent with what a club may do over a 10-, 15-year period," Boras said. "If they can establish that and listen to it, I think when you’re signing long-term contracts, you’re looking at a franchise in the long term, not just the short term."
For those looking for any little grains of information to help understand the White Sox chances at landing Harper, Boras said he and his client have "met with everyone that we need to meet with" and he had nothing but good things to say about team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, saying "I enjoy talking to him all the time." He confirmed that Harper has received information about teams' farm systems and what kind of talent they have coming down the line.
But in the end, Boras stuck to his script as pitchman for Harper as baseball's best value, even at a potential $400 million price point. He talked up Harper's impact on the TV ratings and attendance and merchandise sales in Washington. He talked up how signing a player like Harper can increase the value of a franchise. And surely the White Sox would love all that.
But they'd love winning more.
To get Harper aboard and crank up the brightness on an already bright future on the South Side, they first have to win this sweepstakes.
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