© John Hefti | 2016 Jul 29
The first shoe finally dropped on Tuesday, when Manny Machado signed a $300 million deal with the San Diego Padres. Now we continue to wait on Bryce Harper, and see if the Giants are able to land what would be their most notable free agent signing since Barry Bonds in 1993.
National MLB broadcaster Matt Vasgersian hopped on with Gary & Larry on Thursday afternoon, and said that the Giants should try to break the bank for Harper, even though he feels the Machado deal was a mistake for San Diego.
“The Machado to the Padres case is wholly different than Harper to the Giants,” Vasgersian began. “You could be talking about the same kind of money, the same kind of years of services, but the circumstances are entirely different. The Padres are not in a position — based on market size, based on the media market they play in — to be able to absorb one of these if it doesn’t work. The Giants are, in fact, they have in the past.
“Harper fits into kind of a known commodity, even thought the Giants have trended down the last two years, he’s fitting into a system and a known commodity that’s different than what Machado is being asked to do in San Diego. (Machado)’s being asked to be the commodity, the only one. And I know about the young guys but they’re not there yet, they haven’t proven it yet. You still have (Buster) Posey, (Brandon) Belt, (Brandon) Crawford, and an infrastructure with the Giants that Harper will be asked to assimilate into. There’s a little bit more of a culture there.
Larry threw out a couple of names — Jose Martinez, Starling Marte, Wil Myers, Justin Upton, Ian Desmond — that the Giants might target in a trade if they don’t land Harper. Vasgersian bristled at those names and said if that’s San Francisco’s contingency plan, they should just break the bank for Harper.
“That laundry list of guys you just ripped off; all established players on the, let’s call it downward slope, closer to the end than the beginning. And all guys that are making huge money. If you’re starting to talk about that kind of player, why not roll up the extra suitcase, and get Harper at the age of 26.
“If I’m the Giants I want Harper, and I think that’s what the hold up is, I really do. I think Harper’s camp, and Scott Boras (Harper’s agent) is an exceedingly bright guy, let’s face it. He knows that the need in San Francisco is dire for a player like Harper. It’s not just great, they’re desperate for a guy like him, and he’s going to try to play this thing out until the end.”
Listen to the full interview below.
