Harper signs with Nats for almost $10 million
Tim Brown
By Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports 55 minutes ago
In the final minutes before Monday night’s midnight deadline, the Washington Nationals agreed to terms on a contract with Bryce Harper, the 17-year-old baseball prodigy they’d made the first overall pick in June. The contract is worth $9.9 million.
The signing comes a year after the Nats paid a record $15.1 million for San Diego State right-hander Stephen Strasburg(notes) (another Boras client) and nine years after the Texas Rangers established the still-standing record for a position player – Mark Teixeira(notes) (yet another Boras guy), to a contract that ultimately was worth $11 million.
Harper, who will be 18 in October, batted .443 with 31 home runs and 98 RBIs as a freshman for the College of Southern Nevada, using primarily a wood bat. In order to enroll at the junior college (and therefore become draft eligible), Harper withdrew from Las Vegas High School after his sophomore year and, in December, received his General Equivalency Diploma.
A left-handed hitter, Harper played catcher, right field and third base for CSN. The Nationals on draft day announced him as an outfielder, but there remains some sentiment within the organization to have him catch, which presumably would delay his advancement.