Cubs Are Still Kind Of, Maybe, Sort Of In The Mix For Bryce Harper

You simply can't ignore almost every report out there that signals the Cubs not making a huge splash in free agency despite their desperate need for an impact bat. Yet, it's only Dec. 4, the Winter Meetings don't start until next week and it's not like the list of players who have signed is long. Plus, you just can't count out Theo Epstein on getting his guy. However, as hopeful as I want to be on the chances of the Cubs signing Bryce Harper, the reality is that right now those chances are low. Yet, Theo said that the team won't rule anything out and heading into the Winter Meetings the Cubs are still expected to be in the mix for Harper. Well, kind of. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports wrote about the courting of Harper and while the Dodgers are using Magic Johnson to lure him to LA and the White Sox deployed Jim Thome for their pitch, the Cubs are simply checking in at this point. Via Yahoo! Sports.

Officials from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees are among upward of a dozen teams that have traveled or plan to travel to Nevada to meet with Harper, league sources familiar with the discussions told Yahoo Sports. Other meetings already are set for a site away from MLB’s winter meetings, which start Sunday at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres are expected to check in. The Washington Nationals, with whom he has spent his seven major league seasons and who offered him a 10-year deal worth around $300 million toward the end of the season that Harper rejected, almost certainly will circle back. Harper’s affection for the Houston Astros is well-known, as is the St. Louis Cardinals’ for him.

Translation? A lot of teams are interested in signing Bryce Harper. *update* Apparently Magic Johnson didn't go and meet with Harper.

Yet, this is a reminder that a face-to-face meeting doesn't necessarily mean much for every team.

Face-to-face meetings, after all, do not automatically signify a team’s desire to sign Harper. It could be getting a sense of his personality. Or his market. Or his comportment in social settings. What the Nationals know teams like the Padres or even the Cubs – who have pleaded payroll constraints this offseason – would love to learn.

There is hope, though. Before the Cubs signed Jon Lester many experts believed there was no way the Giants would be out-bid for him. And guess what, they offered Lester more money, but Theo and the Cubs convinced the lefty to sign in Chicago. After the Cubs were eliminated from the NLCS in 2015, there wasn't much talk about them being serious contenders to sign Jason Heyward. And even when it came to his deal, Heyward, like Lester, turned down more guaranteed money and chose the Cubs instead. The Cubs were out on Ben Zobrist and then all of a sudden he was the starting second baseman at Wrigley Field in 2016. Last winter there was absolutely no buzz around the Cubs and Yu Darvish. There were the preliminary talks early in December, like there are now with Harper, and then two months later the Cubs signed the No. 1 starting pitcher in free agency. Of course, that doesn't mean much right now. There appears to be a self-imposed salary cap by ownership this offseason and if there's a big move in the future then the front office will most likely have to shed someone's contract. Jason Heyward has five years and $118.5 million left on his deal. Tyler Chatwood's contract still has $25.5 million remaining through 2020, while Ben Zobrist, who might be the most attractive contract to trade for, is owed $12.5 million in 2019. And there's this positive spin from Bruce Levine.

Everyone else is busy setting up meetings with Harper, the Cubs have their own recruiter. His best friend, Kris Bryant.

The odds may not be great right now, but you simply can't count out Theo on getting his guy. That is if Bryce Harper is his guy. https://soundcloud.com/user-638151057/bryce-harper-to-the-cubs-confirmed Who knows, maybe we've all been paying attention to the wrong guy so far because there's another 26-year-old, power-hitting free agent who's kinda getting ignored. Manny Machado.