Just this past Sunday, the Oakland Athletics met with their 2018 top draft pick, outfielder Kyler Murray, and tried to convince him to stick with baseball. The next day, Murray, who also happens to be the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner as a quarterback for Oklahoma, applied for the NFL draft.
I imagine my public pitch to the Yankees and Bryce Harper will result in even less success; Murray has left the door open to baseball, whereas Yankees general manager Brian Cashman essentially closed the door to Harper on Dec. 10. When Cashman massaged his stance the next day, he uttered his “fully operational Death Star” throwaway line to which many Yankees fans mistakenly, hilariously attached meaning, adding agita to an odd offseason for the game’s Evil Empire.
Yet here we stand in mid-January, with the game’s top two free agents, Harper and Manny Machado, still unsigned and the Yankees wholly uninvolved on the former and marginally involved on the latter. The sentiment has been expressed here repeatedly (some might say excessively) that Machado represents a poor baseball fit and a questionable personality fit for the Yankees. To the contrary, I’m all aboard the Harper-to-The-Bronx train. Here’s the pitch:
To the Yankees: First of all, just confirming that you know the majority of opposing pitchers still throw right-handed? If you acquire one more righty hitter, with DJ LeMahieu the latest addition, you might just tilt over like a small plane with the Clemson offensive line on one side and a jockey bachelor party on the other. Harper’s lefty bat would significantly balance your lineup that currently features exactly one prominent such entity in switch-hitter Aaron Hicks.
The acquisition of Harper also would take the heat off two significant Yankees: Hal Steinbrenner, who has drawn considerable fan wrath for not spending big this winter after finally getting the team’s payroll under the luxury-tax threshold in 2018, and Giancarlo Stanton, who would pivot away from the griddle much like Jason Giambi did in 2004 upon the Yankees’ trade for Alex Rodriguez.
Reservations about Harper’s character? Like A-Rod, he’s used to being the villain. Shoot, he has lived under a microscope since he left high school at age 16 to prepare for an early entry into the amateur draft. His defense? While I can’t provide any data to support my case, I’d bet on the recipe of Harper’s athleticism, intelligence and work ethic and the Yankees’ army of analysts to mitigate this concern.
To Harper: OK, so the Yankees had you at hello. You’re even willing to switch to first base to wear the pinstripes, for crying out loud. For the purposes of this exercise, though, Yankee Stadium’s inviting porch in right field looks perfect for you, as you pulled the ball in 42.3 percent of your swings last season (thanks, FanGraphs). And your emotional, hair-on-fire approach to the game, combined with your prodigious talents, would play very well in the Big Apple, surely enhancing your personal brand and, therefore, your personal income.
To Major League Baseball and the Players Association:
Right now, you two adversaries get along so poorly that you probably couldn’t agree that koala bears are cute. Yet you both should concur that everyone would benefit from a Harper/Yankees merger.
It represents a sad footnote of Sunday’s summit between Murray and the A’s that MLB marketing executives attended the meeting. What did you present as your success stories to Murray? “Aaron Judge and … did we mention Aaron Judge?” It’s rough terrain out there right now for baseball stars. Harper on an ultra-competitive Yankees team, however, could crack that code.
The Commissioner’s Office and the union have minimal involvement regarding which free agent goes where. Nevertheless, you all should root for Harper to wind up with the Yankees. And you all should be disappointed when, barring a shocking development, that doesn’t happen.
