A bombshell report was published after the 2018 season saying that the Houston Astros were set to trade for Bryce Harper. The 27-year-old wishes the deal went through.
Harper was entering free agency after the 2018 season and thinks a trade that would have put him on a contender and brought the Nationals prospects in return to Washington would have made sense for all parties.
“I really wish they would have came up to me and talked to me about it,” Harper said in an interview with Barstool Sports’ “Starting 9” podcast. “If they would have, I would have been like, ‘guys, look at what happened to Aroldis Chapman. The Yankees got Gleyber Torres. Why not do that? We’re out of it, we have no chance. I will come out and say whatever you want to make the organization look good. And if you guys try to sign me back after the year, I have no problem with that. You just made your organization better, and you can sign me back.'”
Harper makes a very good point, but the Nationals’ owners reportedly blocked they trade. They were likely worried about fan backlash had they traded Harper rather than do everything possible to re-sign him. They probably wanted to make sure they did not lose a public relations battle before losing the guy who had been arguably the face of the franchise.
Of course, Washington ended up moving on from Harper in the offseason and won the World Series last year, so all worked out well for them. Houston lost in the 2018 ALCS to the eventual World Series champion Red Sox. Would Harper have put them over the top in that series? Based on the way Boston was playing, probably not, but it would have made things a lot more interesting.
