It’s finally happened. The White Sox are considered serious players for Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, the two biggest free agents to hit the market in this era. Meanwhile, Cubs fans expected the team to be frontrunners for Harper and despite seemingly every report saying the front office has financial constraints this offseason, the luxury tax shouldn’t matter to the franchise.
So, both sides of town have had some degree of optimism regarding Harper and Machado. The White Sox just met with Machado in person Monday and will make his decision to sign after the new year. They also met with Harper back in November. The Cubs have reportedly had conversations about a pursuit of Harper and although they don’t appear to be heavily involved on him right now, they have kept dialogue going with his agent Scott Boras.
Let’s shift to only talking about Harper.
You can make an argument that Machado is a better fit for both the Cubs and White Sox, but the majority of fans want Harper.
🔥 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel to hear Chicago legends tell stories you’ve never seen in headlines — real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.
There have also been conflicting rumors that Harper either prefers to play for the Cubs or Dodgers. That’s kind of dampened some of the optimism for White Sox fans and maybe given Cubs fans something positive to think about.
But of course the other team attached to those rumors is the Dodgers.
Just like the Cubs, the Dodgers’ only way of going after Harper this offseason was to shed some payroll because they want to stay below the luxury tax. Again, just like the Cubs, though, the Dodgers shouldn’t worry about the luxury tax when it comes to signing Bryce Harper. Plus, both teams have a lot of money coming off their payroll after 2019, which makes it possible for them to stay under the luxury tax and the penalty resets.
The assumption has been that moving some money should make it easier to go after Harper.
And then the Reds came along and helped the Dodgers. Not only did Cincinnati take on more money, but they traded away at least one of their top-10 prospects and another ranked in the teens to the Dodgers all just to dump Homer Bailey’s money and for Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp, Alex Wood and Kyle Farmer.
The #Reds have acquired LHP Alex Wood, OF Matt Kemp, OF Yasiel Puig, IF/C Kyle Farmer and cash from the Dodgers in exchange for RHP Homer Bailey and minor leaguers IF Jeter Downs and RHP Josiah Gray. pic.twitter.com/IjJusbl0Ud
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) December 21, 2018
More importantly, the Dodgers save money.
Even with the $7M shipped to #Reds, #Dodgers save about $17.5M toward 2019 luxury tax payroll here. Kemp for tax purposes is $20M, Wood/Puig approx $22M combined while Bailey ($17.5M) plus the $7M.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 21, 2018
I know that Jeff Passan and Ken Rosenthal kept hammering the point that the Dodgers may not necessarily be all in on Harper and that the trade could actually point to Los Angeles signing a guy like A.J. Pollock, and/or trading for Corey Kluber. But even if that’s the case why not just go after Harper because those other moves would still put the Dodgers over the luxury tax?
Cubs fans and White Sox fans could at least unite for one day, hating on the Reds, who made the Dodgers chances of going after Harper that much higher. And Cubs fans should be a lot more pissed off because the Dodgers are the biggest threat to them in the National League. Getting Harper in LA would make them a lot better and a lot more dangerous in the National League.
It’s no guarantee that Harper ends up with the Dodgers, but the fucking Reds have at least made that possibility greater and all to win maybe 80-83 games in 2019?
Stupid Reds.
