On Saturday afternoon, former New York Mets GM and baseball insider, Steve Phillips, tweeted something very crushing to the hopes and predictions of Bryce Harper joining the Bronx Bombers this offseason.
Phillips’ tweet reads,
“Bad news for Scott Boras and Bryce Harper: per a source, the Yankees ‘will not be in on Harper.’ Not a complete surprise as indicated by re-signing of Brett Gardner. Seems Machado and pitching additions are Plan A.”
Speculations have come out from multiple sources, making it clear that the Dodgers and the Yankees were the top two teams in terms of free agency landing spots for Harper. However, now with the Yankees apparently out of the running for Harper, it’s only to assume that the Dodgers would be tagged as the frontrunning team to acquire Bryce Harper.
The Dodgers head into this offseason with no current outfielders becoming free agents, meaning that Harper would have to split time or even bench players like Joc Pederson, Chris Taylor, Andrew Toles, and Alex Verdugo. By the looks of it, Harper would most likely become a left-fielder if he were to join the Dodgers, as Yasiel Puig holds the reins on Harper’s primary position of right field.
Harper has logged 190 games in left field in his seven-year career, all played in a Washington Nationals uniform.
Arrick Joel has covered the Dodgers since 2017, and for Dodgers-LowDown since 2018. Follow @ArrickJoel and @DodgersLowDown on Twitter for more.