Nationals Owner Mark Lerner On Bryce Harper: "I Really Don't Expect Him To Come Back"

The Bryce Harper free agency sweepstakes are underway, and the Nationals seem to already know where they stand in the race. Their offer to Harper, which was first reported last month, is somewhere in the range of 10 years and $300 million. That is probably less than other interested parties will put on the table, and does not include the longstanding seething dysfunction that Harper would leave behind if and when he gets himself out of D.C.

Owner Mark Lerner went on D.C. radio station 106.7 The Fan today and said that, yeah, he gone. Harper is probably shopping the Nationals’ stalking horse offer around right now, which means that Lerner is not only saying he expects his offer to be bested, but that Harper might not even want to give the Nationals a chance to raise their offer again later in the bidding process:

“We’ll have to sit down and figure it out. If he comes back, it’s a strong possibility that we won’t be able to make it work. But I really don’t expect him to come back at this point. I think they’ve decided to move on. There’s just too much money out there that he’d be leaving on the table. That’s just not Mr. Boras’ MO to leave money on the table.”

Congratulations to the Chicago White Sox.