Bill Madden: Don’t blame Brian Cashman for Bryce Harper not being a Yankee

Brian Cashman probably didn’t have a particularly great week after sitting through three days of Yankee meetings in Tampa listening to criticism of his analytics department and all that contributed to the disaster (his word) of an 82-80 season in 2023. But one of the most vocal criticisms of Cashman that has re-emerged after Bryce Harper’s .462, three-homer, five RBI destruction of the Braves in the NL Division Series is totally undeserved.

The media and fans that are once again killing Cashman for passing on Harper as a free agent in 2018 have forgotten all the circumstances which led to him signing that record 13-year, $330 million contract with the Phillies. Because if Yankee fans are again lamenting that Harper is not in the Bronx, what about the fans of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and all the other teams that fell way short of the Phillies’ offer or took a pass altogether?

Let’s re-visit that offseason of 2018-2019 when Harper finally hit the free agent market after his agent Scott Boras had predicted he would be the highest player ever almost from the day the Nationals made him the first overall pick in the 2010 draft out of a small college in Henderson, Nev. From the get-go, Boras made it clear the parameters for Harper were going to have to significantly exceed the reported final 10-year, $300 million offer made by the Nationals that was flatly rejected because so much deferred money had reduced its present value to only $184 million.

Still, most every team in baseball viewed the 10-year, $300 million “benchmark” prohibitive, mostly because of the years. The only owner in baseball who did not view it that way was the Phillies’ John Middleton, who admitted early on that winter he was probably going to have to spend “stupid money” to restore his team to championship caliber after six straight losing seasons. Those words were music to Boras’ ears, but when Middleton followed them up with a “real” 10-year, $300 million offer, Boras, who was determined to get a deal that would exceed Giancarlo Stanton’s record 13-year, $325 million contract, had no response. Rather, he continued to try getting a market going for Harper, repeatedly leaking to the media an ideal fit for him would be his childhood favorite team, the Yankees.

When it was pointed out the Yankees’ outfield was pretty set with Aaron Judge in right, Brett Gardner (coming off the most productive season of his career) in left and Aaron Hicks (who the next year they felt worthy of a seven-year, $70 million extension) in center — and that, the year before, they’d already committed to taking on Stanton’s contract to be their DH — Boras began to float the notion that Harper, a right fielder his entire career, would agree to play first base (for a record amount of money, of course).

Given the Yankees’ wealth and previous propensity to pursue the top free agents in the market, it was hard to for the media to comprehend why Hal Steinbrenner was unwilling to spend another $300 million on a player into his late 30s; a corner outfielder that, at the time, he really didn’t need. Meanwhile, lest we forget, no other team was either. As the calendar went from November ’18 to February ’19, Middleton’s offer was still out there, unaddressed.

It wasn’t until mid-February when Boras was finally able to get the Dodgers engaged but only on a short term deal with a record AAV, while there were reports the Giants were now supposedly willing to go beyond 10 years. That was when Middleton, probably weary of bidding against himself, ponied up the extra three years and $30 million Boras was looking for to finally get the deal done.

I was as big a critic of Middleton as anyone for allowing himself to be played by Boras for as long as he was. But Harper already led the Phillies to one World Series last year, and I suspect if they make it back this year and win it all, Middleton will feel the “silly” $330 million — even the last $125 million of it when Harper will be over 35 and presumably starting to break down — will have been money well spent.

IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD

Buck Showalter has a dilemma. At 67, he would like one more crack at managing in pursuit of that elusive first World Series, but the team that appears to be aggressively pursuing him — the Angels — needs him a lot more than he needs them. In fact, the Angels may well be the worst managing job in baseball, in the same division as the Astros, Rangers and Mariners, with a general manager, the very capable Perry Minasian, who’s in the last year of his contract, and an owner, Arte Moreno, who’s still believed to be looking to sell the team and who probably won’t be able to re-sign Shohei Ohtani. With or without Ohtani, it’s a bad team, with very little help coming in the farm system. A dead end street where Buck would be wasted. … There’s much wailing in Baltimore after the young Orioles, following their inspiring 101-win AL East championship season, wound up being swept out of the AL Division Series by the Rangers. But in retrospect they may have had no one to blame but themselves for being so shortsighted (and penurious) about their suspect starting pitching. They knew last winter if they were going to be serious World Series contenders they were going to have to considerably upgrade their rotation. But despite the majors 27th lowest payroll, GM Mike Elias’ answer was to sign the very mediocre Kyle Gibson for one year, $10M while passing on, among others, Justin Verlander, Chris Bassitt, Nathan Eovaldi, Zach Elfin and Jose Quintana. The Orioles got lucky this year when Kyle Bradish emerged as a true potential ace and rookie Grayson Rodriguez, after a rocky start and a demotion to the minors, was dominant in August and September. But at the trade deadline, Elias again went cheap, refusing to sacrifice any of his top prospects (Coby Mayo, Joey Ortiz, Connor Norby, et al.) — all of whom are blocked on the major league roster — for the White Sox’s Dylan Cease, the Tigers’ Eduardo Rodriguez or even Verlander (if he’d have approved). Instead he settled for sending a couple of marginal low level prospects to the Cardinals for the oft-injured, mostly ineffective Jack Flaherty. Despite one of the best lineups in baseball, when they got to their first postseason since 2016, the Orioles were lacking a veteran proven ace and it cost them when neither Bradish nor Rodriguez could deliver. If the Orioles are going to take it a step further next year, they are going to have to go bold on starting pitching this winter, perhaps re-visiting the White Sox on Cease, and getting heavily engaged on free agents Blake Snell, Aaron Nola, Jordan Montgomery and Rodriguez. If they are able to land two of them they will be unequivocally the team to beat in the AL. But after owner John Angelos said he didn’t think the Orioles had the money to sign all their young stars — Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle — to extensions, I have my doubts.