Bryce Harper’s free agency was among the biggest in baseball history. He met with numerous teams in Las Vegas in the winter of 2019, ultimately signing a massive 13-year, $330 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.
But Harper almost ended up elsewhere.
On the Pat McAfee show, Harper revealed that it was “close” between the Phillies and San Francisco Giants. What ultimately led him away from the Giants, he said, was that Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy was leaving the organization. Harper called Bochy a legend, one of the best managers in baseball history. And it was that, as well as the allure of playing in Philadelphia, that drove him to the Phillies.
Bochy stepping away not only changed Giants history but perhaps baseball history as well.
How close was Harper to signing with the Giants?
Seemingly close!
A night before going to the Phillies, Harper called then-Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford to ask about the team and organization, also seeking information on what the plan was post-Bochy, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area.
Their package was slightly shy of what the Phillies signed Harper for, with the Giants offering 12 years for $310 million. They signaled a willingness to go higher, but state taxes made it a significant difference and lessened the overall value of the offer. Harper’s agent Scott Boras told Pavlovic that “the key thing is that they were late to the event,” with the Giants joining the process late into free agency.
What would have landing Harper meant for the Giants?
It would have given them a significant building block, something the organization had long sought and constantly swung and missed.
They tried for Giancarlo Stanton. They tried for Jon Lester. At one point, they tried for Pudge Rodriguez. They later tried for Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa, at one point agreeing to a long-term deal with Correa before failing his physical. Harper, however, was seemingly their top target of them all (except for Judge), and if they had landed the future Hall of Famer, it would have represented a chance to rekindle their magic from 2010, 2012 and 2014.
But their constant failure to land a superstar free agent ultimately helped lead to the demise of Farhan Zaidi in San Francisco.
Would Aaron Judge have followed Bryce Harper to the Bay?
It’s something that we will never know, and it’s one of the great unknowns in baseball history.
Harper and Judge are teammates in the World Baseball Classic, with Harper saying that he’s long looked forward to playing with Judge. If Harper was with the Giants, there’s a very good chance that he would have led the organization’s recruiting efforts to sign Judge in the winter of 2022.
The Giants were a significant player for Judge. The Padres loomed as a massive threat to sign the superstar slugger and offered a contract north of $400 million. A return to the Yankees was in doubt. Could Harper have swayed Judge and pushed him to San Francisco? Would the Giants have been as involved in Judge’s free agency had they landed Harper years prior?
Imagine Harper and Judge as teammates and competing head-to-head with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Hoo boy. That would have rekindled a once great rivalry.
How the Phillies’ timeline would have changed without Harper
It would have changed everything for Philly.
They advanced to the World Series in 2022, eventually losing to the Houston Astros in six games. They advanced to the National League Championship Series the next season. They made it to the National League Divisional Series in 2024 and 2025.
I’m quite confident that the Phillies would have made big moves without Harper. They still would have signed Trea Turner to a $300 million contract in free agency. But Dave Dombrowski and John Middleton are two of the most aggressive leaders in baseball and they would not have been content without adding a face of the franchise, superstar-type player.
Who that would have been is anyone’s guess. But Harper is the perfect fit in Philadelphia, a player who represents the city extremely well. The signing worked out tremendously for both sides. But the what-if of Harper going to San Francisco will surely linger in the back of everyone’s heads in the Bay Area, both now and for years to come.
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