That's right Nationals Fans. It does not matter the level of your fandom. At some point during this season your opinion of Bryce Harper will sour. As the 2018 season begins, so begins the countdown to Bryce Harper's impending free agency and the countdown to the first reporter asking Bryce Harper about his future contract. And that may not be pretty considering this was Harper's unsolicited statement about contract questions back in February:
“I just want to let you guys know that I will not be discussing anything not relevant to 2018 at all. I’m focused on this year, focused on winning and playing hard. If you have any questions about anything past 2018, you can call Scott and he can answer you guys. If you guys do ask anything, then I’ll be walking right out the door.”
-quote courtesy of Thom Loverro and the Washington Times
Notwithstanding the double negative in the first sentence, that is a bold statement coming from one of the faces of Major League Baseball because no matter how the Nationals perform this season the contract questions will come. God forbid the Nationals struggle. Then the question will be "Do the team's struggles have an impact on Harper possibly leaving?". If the Nationals go on a heater the question will be "Does the team's recent success make Harper want to stay?". Bryce Harper's contract will be the overarching theme to the team's performance, win or lose, and that will have a deleterious effect on your fandom. How, you ask? Because the situation will eventually be personalized to the point where Harper will not be able to avoid answering contract questions without losing face in the court of public opinion.
The questions will start with general questions about Harper's contract being related to team performance as stated above. If the Nationals are losing that could be a problem, but Dave Martinez and the other players can easily side step those questions. As the season goes on, though, Harper's performance then takes center stage. Then the team needs to start answering for him because he said he won't answer contract questions. Ryan Zimmerman will need to postulate about such things as "Bryce is in a slump, do you think that hurts or helps him staying in DC?" or "Do you think Bryce's hot streak will increase or decrease his chances of leaving?". Then the questions will speculate about Bryce's relationship with other teams and players. Those questions will be "Bryce was being very friendly with Kris Bryant, does that mean he wants to go to Chicago?" or "Bryce took some time for himself in LA against the Dodgers, should fans be concerned about that?". All the while Bryce will be standing pat and allowing the team to answer those questions for him, or he will simply ignore any reporter who asks him those kinds of questions. How long will you tolerate that as a fan before your opinion of Harper starts to wane, especially if he does not even intimate that he want to stay in DC? The longer Harper decides to avoid those questions the more fans he will begin to alienate, and it will all come to a head if Fall comes and no extension has been given. The alienation will be doubled if the Nationals make the playoffs. Now the team will have to answer things like "If you win the World Series do you think Bryce will stay or go?". What will Bryce do then? Continue to ignore those questions and let it overshadow the Nationals' championship run? The longer Bryce sticks to his mute demeanor the more of the fan base will begin to turn on him.
DC Fans assume the worst. If Harper does not state that he wants to stay in DC while dodging questions about his contract all season, the conjecture that will encircle the fan base about Harper leaving DC will not help you like him. It will create a sense within the fan base that Harper can do no right by Nationals fans no matter what decision he makes. If Harper leaves then the fan base will automatically vilify him stating that he never wanted to be here in the first place. If it is for more money then he will be painted as a money grabber. If he signs for "less" then it will exacerbate the hatred from the fan base that Bryce just wanted out of DC. Even if Harper is able to deliver a World Series this season and leaves there will be a significant portion of the fan base that will label him as disingenuous. If Harper stays for the $400 million price tag some are speculating it could be, then the fan base will say he is crippling the team's financial future even if he wins a Championship this year. If he stays for big money and cannot deliver in the post season, the notion that Harper is not worth the money will spread like a virus through the fan base. The only way Bryce wins is if he stays for "less" money (which is still the GDP of some small countries) and brings a Championship to DC. But do you really see that happening? Any way you look at it, if you are a Nationals fan, you will hate Bryce Harper by the end of this season.
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