Balta1701

Also worth noting - the Nats payroll was $180 million to start the year last year during a rough year. Right now, without Harper, they already have $160 million-ish committed for next year.

THE FIRST BAD THING EVER TO HAPPEN BECAUSE OF DEEP DISH

Bah, we're going to hear that we're out of it at least 5 more times before either of them actually signs. At some point Bruce Levine will share that we're right in the mix with the strongest offer or something like that and we'll cover 20 pages of posts in about 30 minutes, then nothing will happen for another 3 days and we'll hear that they're both signing with the Yankees, then 3 more days will pass before anything official goes down.

Before he fell apart physically, he put up 6 fWAR in a 2 year stretch for the A's.

ARoid got all that for 10 years, got something like $400 million for the privilege, and now he's an MLB analyst.

Even if he has a really good first half, no one is trading a "Haul" for a weak defensive 1b/DH under control for 3 months or less with an annual salary of $18 million a year. You might get something for him, but not a lot.

I went back to 2013 and found no year where the Astros were listed as receiving a competitive balance pick, what year did I miss? 2013/2014, 2015 , 2016, 2017/2018.

Then let's see him turn around a really bad, injury riddled season next year and we'll talk. If he can't, then next season there are other options on the market who performed better this year who will be available for that same money.

But you just said that Anderson would be traded to the Yankees for pitching/prospects, so you've got the Yankees needing pitching on one hand but then giving up pitching for Anderson on the other.

How much do we really think the Yankees care about blowing up their budget?

Because he gets an additional $200 million guaranteed and then negotiates another 3 year opt out so that he has one more chance to hit the market at age 32?

2029 with a team option for 2030.

He's not going to have only 3 years remaining on his deal at age 29, he'll have 7/250 in the setup you wrote, and he would absolutely be able to beat that on the FA market unless he was hurt or Heywarded the contract, probably in the range of 10/450 if he just kept doing what he was doing now. So I have no idea what you're saying. He'd take that opt out at age 29 after 2021 with no thought at all.

So you're saying he could hit free agency at age 32 and sign an 8+ year contract again? That's a joke of course he'd opt out of that. He would take every single opt out that you listed.

He would ABSOLUTELY opt out of 3/155 to get 7/280. He would take the first opt out, he would take the 2nd opt out, he would take the 3rd opt out. He would take every single one of those unless he was hurt the year before. Those last 4 seasons are going to be years when he's after age 35, he is not going to make an extra $125 million in short term deals by then. You want an example of a back loaded deal that a player opted out of with Boras as his agent? Alex Rodriguez's first deal was backloaded. He signed at age 25, and played the first 6 years earning just over $22 million per year. In the first 6 years, he earned $135 million. He had $114 million on the table, an average of $29 million per year. He opted out of those last 4 years, at age 31, and then signed a 10/$275 deal. If Harper can hit free agency again and his deal is anything other HUGELY backloaded, he will opt out.