Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports that multiple members of the Giants front office met with Bryce Harper this week. That includes team Chairman Larry Baer, President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi and Manager Bruce Bochy. The meeting took place in Harper’s hometown of Las Vegas.
The Giants, who are in a transitional period following 98 and 89-loss seasons, have not committed to a full-blown rebuild like some losing teams have, but their recent hiring of Zaidi at least suggested that they would take a slower approach as they attempt to return to contention. As it is, their only offseason additions this winter have been Derek Holland, Drew Pomeranz and Pat Venditte, which is not exactly a case of the Giants setting the world on fire.
Still, Harper is a generational talent and, assuming the Giants’ timetable is only a couple of years rather than, say, five years, it would make a lot of sense for them to be interested in a player like Harper to build around. Or retrench around. Whatever you wanted to call it.
As for Harper, whether he’d be interested in going to San Francisco is an open question. It’s certainly a great baseball town with an ownership group which has shown it likes to spend money. The issue is whether he’d want to go to a place where, at least for the short term, the road to contention seems rocky.
