Looks like there’s something to the Bryce Harper rumors after all.
Giants VP of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi confirmed to reporters on Friday that there is mutual interest between the club and Harper, and that the two sides met for a few hours earlier this week. Zaidi also confirmed that the club is looking to add more than one experienced outfielder this offseason.
Farhan Zaidi said the Giants still plan to add multiple experienced outfielders before the season. There’s mutual interest with Bryce Harper and Zaidi said their meeting lasted for a few hours.
— Kerry Crowley (@KO_Crowley) February 8, 2019
Zaidi said there’s obviously mutual interest between Harper and Giants. “That was an expression of our interest level, to make a trip out there.”
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) February 8, 2019
Via Alex Pavlovic, Zaidi joked that he couldn’t deny the meeting after a photo surfaced of Larry Baer in a casino.
First question to Farhan Zaidi at media session is about Harper. He doesn’t like speaking about these things, but joked “it’s kind of hard to deny (a meeting) when your CEO gets made in the casino.”
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) February 8, 2019
Buster Posey seems to be on board as well.
Buster Posey on the Harper meeting: “Yeah, sign him up. What team out there wouldn’t want a Bryce Harper, a Manny Machado, a lot of the free agents?”
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) February 8, 2019
Harper to the Giants didn’t seem to be a realistic possibility this offseason, with Zaidi implying on multiple occasions that breaking the bank for a big name player probably wasn’t the best course of action when it came to turning around a club with questionable depth at both the major and minor league levels.
But free agency has stalled to an absurd degree, and Zaidi said a few weeks ago that the Giants may circle back on high profile players as the market continues to shrink.
It appears that has happened.
