When people ask which team will be the winners of the Bryce Harper sweepstakes this winter, no one really mentions the White Sox, even though they now have the 5th best odds in all of baseball to land the superstar.
#Whitesox now have 5th best odds to land Harper or Machado behind Nationals, Yankees, Phillies, and Cardinals. A month ago, they weren’t even listed period. #progress
— Emmet McClain (@Run__EMC) November 29, 2018
Well, people better start to believe the hype. Let’s recap the past month:
First, the Michael Jordan statue outside the United Center was spotted wearing a Bryce Harper White Sox jersey about a month ago. The marquee was also decked out in the black and white White Sox colors along with Harper’s name and iconic number 34.
White Sox setting up at the United Center for Bryce Harper 👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/IDKsjbqbAC
— Red Line Radio (@RedLineRadio) November 8, 2018
Second, the White Sox have a virtually limitless amount of money to spend this off season. This holds even more truth after the recent non-tenders of Avi Garcia and Matt Davidson. If they wanted (not saying this will happen by any means) they could offer Bryce Harper 50 million a year and still have a payroll around just 100 million. Rumors are that he’ll probably get 30-35 million per year, so the Sox definitely have the financial flexibility to get a deal done.
Third, a report just came out that Chicago used Hall of Famer and former White Sox Jim Thome in their visit with Bryce Harper.
The Chicago White Sox enlisted the help of Hall of Famer Jim Thome during their visit with Bryce Harper. (Via @JeffPassan)
— Daniel Greenberg (@ChiSportUpdates) December 4, 2018
It sounds like the White Sox have already met with the Las Vegas native, and they brought the big guns.
What’s funny about this is that Jim Thome also played for the Phillies, the supposed favorite to land Harper. If anyone is able to convince Harper that Chicago is a more enticing option than Philly, it’s Thome.
Bryce Harper’s chances of coming to Chicago are still probably behind those of Philadelphia, but it sounds like the White Sox are going to give it everything they have to bring Harper to the South Side.
More money than 99% of the MLB can offer, the 3rd biggest market in the country, the face of the franchise, and Hall of Famers personally making a case to come to Chicago. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
We’ll see if Harper agrees very soon.
