When Bryce Harper hit free agency after the 2018 season, the Chicago Cubs were heavily connected to him, but ultimately did not pursue him before he ended up signing with the Philadelphia Phillies. With the Phillies visiting the Cubs this weekend, Harper admitted that the Cubs were initially the No. 1 team on his list.
“Going into that offseason, they were the No. 1 team on my list,” Bryce Harper said, via Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. “Without a doubt.”
Cubs owner Tom Ricketts garnered attention for his comments on Harper’s free agency and the decision to not pursue the superstar.
“We spent a lot of time thinking about what Bryce Harper’s worth as a free agent, Tom Ricketts said, via Mooney. “That’s one that we kicked around that obviously we never executed on.”
Harper said that there is no hard feelings when it comes to the Cubs’ decision to not pursue him.
“One of my buddies is a big Cubs fan,” Harper said. “He sent it to me like: ‘Man, what the heck? Why does he got to say this?’ But it’s one of those things. Looking back on it, it could have been really good, or it could have been really bad, right? You never know. I never fault any organization for not getting a player or not going after a player. … They were in such a different time frame at that time. You never know what an organization’s going to do or where their next five years are going to be. You have no idea. At the time, it just didn’t match or didn’t work. It just kind of happens that way, sometimes, in sports and free agency.”
Part of why the Cubs were connected with Harper was because at the time, his close friend Kris Bryant was on the team. Harper would have joined a Cubs team that was contending with players like Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and others who were a member of that iconic 2016 team that broke the franchise’s championship drought.
Instead, the Cubs decided to not pursue Harper and stick with their core. Now, the Cubs have a star player in Kyle Tucker on their roster. They are going to try to lock Tucker into a long-term deal at some point, as he is scheduled to hit free agency this winter.
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