Since the last time I posted, neither of the two major free agents have signed a contract yet. Machado and Harper are taking their sweet time and although it is frustrating, you can’t blame the two. There is a lot of money at stake and their lives will monumentally change when they sign each of their new deals.
I don’t have much to report on Harper or Machado and that is because everything is just a rumor at this point. One day the headlines read, “Harper and Nationals are in discussions after lengthy meeting” or “Harper to Philadelphia is a strong possibility after today”. Truthfully, no one knows anything and everything at this point is speculation. What I know for sure is that there are at least four teams that have significant interest in Harper; the Dodgers, Phillies, Nationals and White Sox. The Cubs are acting like they have a chance with Harper but they would have to do some major reconstructing of their team in order to afford Harper.
As for Machado, his list of suitors is more defined with the White Sox, Phillies and Yankees all being the top choices. Machado is a life long Yankee fan but he may not receive the contract or amount of money that he wants from them. The White Sox have said that they don’t want to commit to a long term, 10 year contract and that is fair to say. Philadelphia is a team that has reportedly said they’re going to “spend stupid money this offseason”, but it hasn’t necessarily panned out for them. That is unless they end up signing Harper or Machado.
We are almost in the middle of January and neither player has signed and hopefully this doesn’t drag on for too much longer. Harper and Machado are currently affecting all of the other free agents in baseball that need a job. Most teams that are in the running for either player are seeing where things go before signing multiple players instead of just the one. In the long run this could affect a team in one of two ways: either the team signs Harper or Machado and the offseason is a success. Or the team loses out on Harper and Machado and also loses out on other free agents because they relied on the two big guys.
Leadoff Dodgers 