With Bryce Harper set to announce his free agency landing spot by the end of the week three teams are in serious talks to land the six-time all-star. The Phillies, Giants, and Dodgers are reportedly feasible options for Harper. The Giants are currently leading with 1/1 odds per Bovada followed by the Phillies at +400 and the Dodgers at +750. It was reported today that the Dodgers met with Bryce and made an offer.
The Dodgers pushing to sign Harper only raising my certainty that the Giants will shell out $350+ million to sign him. San Francisco’s new head of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi was previously GM for the Dodgers. With his former employer interested in signing Bryce it should only increase Zaidi’s confidence that he would be well worth the money. The Giants have a plethora of horrible contracts overpaying mediocre talents like Evan Longoria and known thief Mark Melancon. However, after the 2022 season, they will be free of all current contracts. They also just signed a 20-year stadium rights deal with Oracle worth over $200 million that provides them with more than enough money to get this deal done.
With an old roster and depleted farm system, the Giants have been labelled as a rebuilding franchise for years to come. However, their roster is being overlooked due to their dismal 2017 and 2018 seasons. The Giants still have the core of players that lead them to three world series titles in five years. 2012 NL MVP Buster Posey and 2014 world series MVP Madison Bumgarner were hurt in 2017 and 2018, but are now fully healthy. They also have 2014 CY Young runner-up Johnny Cueto, who held a 0.34 ERA through four healthy starts before his season was cut short last season due to Tommy John surgery. Along with those three stars they have gold glove winner Brandon Crawford and first baseman Brandon Belt who were instrumental in their three world series titles.
I am not saying that with the Giants current roster they are anything close to a playoff team or even capable to win more than 73 games. However, Bryce Haper could change all of that. Betting on the Giants to land Harper does not have much value at 1/1 odds. However, their odds of winning the NL West are currently 40/1 (according to Vegas Insider) if they land Harper those odds would skyrocket. If you are going to pick a darkhorse to make the playoffs and potentially a playoff run, look no farther than San Francisco.
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