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Though he’s faced three significant injuries at different points in his career, Harper has mostly quieted health concerns by playing in at least 147 games in three of the last four seasons.Ī typical three-year look back (inconvenient given the timing of Harper’s monster year) places him just 34th among position players in FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement. A right fielder by nature, Harper has also dabbled at the other outfield positions during his Nationals career. The Mike Trout-Bryce Harper debate has been settled, but Harper can reasonably be considered one of the 15 best hitters in baseball.

He’s a middle of the order left-handed bat with the ability to hit 35-40 home runs and draw 120 walks. He also has a limitless ceiling, as evidenced by his MVP campaign.

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That brings us to his long-anticipated free agency. Given his unique path to the Majors and choice not to sign an extension with the Nationals, Harper reaches free agency having just celebrated his 26th birthday. There’s some similarity to Alex Rodriguez’s epic free agency, in which A-Rod signed a 10-year, $252MM deal with the Rangers and made his debut with them several months before turning 26. Though Harper is not as accomplished as Rodriguez was, he’s still in position to sign the largest contract in baseball history. Harper comes with a qualifying offer, though that won’t deter his suitors. The current contract record belongs to Giancarlo Stanton, who signed a 13-year, $325MM extension with the Marlins four years ago - two years before the slugger was slated to reach free agency. The free agent contract records both belong to A-Rod, who topped his own $252MM benchmark by signing for $275MM after the 2007 season.

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