For the second year in a row it came down to the final excruciating moments. And for the second year in a row the Nationals got their man.
Washington signed No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Harper to a major-league contract on Monday just seconds before Major League Baseball’s deadline passed at midnight.
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Harper, a 17-year-old outfielder, is among the most hyped prospects the sport has seen in recent years – joining pitcher Stephen Strasburg, whom the Nats selected with the top pick in the 2009 draft and has already made an impact in the big leagues this season.
Harper’s contract is a major-league deal for five years and a total of $9.9 million, according to baseball sources. He receives a signing bonus of $6.25 million as part of that final number, tying San Diego Padres minor-league outfielder Donavan Tate’s record-bonus set last summer. However, the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night reportedly gave No. 2 overall pick Jameson Taillon, a right-handed pitcher, a record $6.5 million bonus.
In terms of overall dollars, though, Harper did better and he broke the record for a position player formerly held by New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira ($9.5 million), who was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2001.
“The final framework started within the last hour of the contract where we felt we had some momentum to get a deal done,” said Nats general manager Mike Rizzo. “As usual with these deadline negotiations you go down to the last second until somebody blinks and you make your last-ditch efforts. This time it came out with a great conclusion.”
Harper drew intense national scrutiny after skipping his final two years of high school to play at a junior college – the College of Southern Nevada – in his hometown of Las Vegas. But despite using a wood bat and facing older competition, Harper batted .443 with 23 doubles, four triples and 31 home runs there and solidified his standing as the best player available in the 2010 draft. He was the Scenic West Athletic Conference Player of the Year and those 31 homers set a Southern Nevada program record. Harper, who is a left-handed hitter and throws with his right, posted a 1.513 OPS last season and led the conference in every major offensive category.
“He’s a guy who could possibly be a cornerstone of our lineup in the very near future and a talent that we’re pleased to put into the organization,” Rizzo said.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Harper earned the Golden Spikes Award this summer from USA Baseball as the country’s top amateur player. He was a catcher both in high school and at Southern Nevada. But the Nats believe Harper will reach the big leagues faster by playing the outfield instead and introduced him that way after selecting him first overall at the draft on June 7.
Scott Boras, the agent who represented Strasburg during last year’s negotiations with the Nats, handled Harper’s contract as well. With just over a minute left before the deadline last August Boras and Washington general manager Mike Rizzo agreed to a draft record $15.1 million major-league deal for Strasburg. This time the two sides dipped under the final minute with hope leeching out of the conference room on the third floor of Nationals Park.
“The truth is with a full minute to go Mike and I both thought we were not going to have a deal,” said Nats team president Stan Kasten. “And I think Scott would say the same thing.”
Had Harper not signed it would have been the second time in three years Washington let its first-round pick slip away. That also happened in 2008 when pitcher Aaron Crow shunned the franchise’s final offer during what had become a contentious negotiation. He returned to the draft the following spring after a stint in independent ball. The Nats would have received the second overall pick in the 2011 draft as compensation if Harper had not agreed to a deal. And while that draft class is considered a deep one the Nats didn’t want to lose one of the top amateur power hitters in draft history.
Instead, Harper will be introduced to the media when the team returns to Nationals Park next week for a homestand. He will then head to Viera, Fla., to begin his pro career with the organization’s Gulf Coast League affiliate as it concludes its season this month. He will stay in Viera for fall instructional league and Rizzo said there was an outside chance Harper could represent the club at the prestigious Arizona Fall League, where many of the sport’s top prospects congregate in October and November.
Harper will immediately be added to the organization’s 40-man roster because he signed a major-league deal. That means the team has four options to send Harper to the minor leagues at the start of each season. But he must be on the 25-man big-league roster for good by Opening Day, 2014. The Nats are confident that will happen.
“We do feel [Harper] is a fast track 17-year-old player,” Rizzo said. “The fact that he handles the wood so well and is very experienced playing with a wooden bat the whole [2010] season helped us with our evaluation of him. And I think it speaks to how hard he’s worked over the season and how ready we feel he is to endure the rigors of professional baseball.”
