WASHINGTON — The Washington
Nationals and No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Harper were heading toward a
deadline to get a deal done Monday.
Major League Baseball clubs had until
midnight EDT as Monday turned to Tuesday to reach agreements with
players picked in June's amateur draft. If there's no contract by then,
teams lose the rights to those players, who go back into next year's
amateur draft.
As of 8 p.m., the Nationals hadn't
made an announcement on Harper. The team did say it came to terms with
second-round choice Sammy Solis, a left-handed pitcher from the
University of San Diego.
"There's a deadline for a reason, and
most of the higher picks take it to the deadline," Washington general
manager Mike Rizzo said over the weekend. "Until they change the
deadline, we're always going to work up to those deadlines, and I think
this year is no different."
The Nationals know this scenario well:
They came to terms with last year's No. 1 choice – pitcher Stephen
Strasburg – with about a minute or so left on the clock in August 2009,
giving him a record-breaking $15.1 million, four-year contract.
Harper and Strasburg both are
represented by Scott Boras.
"The whole process is silly. It needs
to be changed," Nationals president Stan Kasten said.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Harper is a
17-year-old power-hitting junior college catcher the Nationals want to
convert to an outfielder. He's the first JUCO player taken with the top
overall pick.
Harper hit .443 with 31 homers and 98
RBIs in his first season at the College of Southern Nevada, which plays
in a league that uses wood bats. He skipped his final two years of high
school and got his GED, making him eligible for the 2010 amateur draft.
He already has been on the cover of
Sports Illustrated, at 16. He was the first non-senior to earn Baseball
America's High School Player of the Year award. And he was only the
second junior college player, joining Alex Fernandez in 1990, to win the
Golden Spikes Award, given to the country's top amateur baseball
player.
Strasburg began this season in the
minors, then made his big league debut June 8 against the Pittsburgh
Pirates, striking out 14. He is 5-3 with a 2.97 ERA in 11 starts for
Washington.
After pitching Sunday, Strasburg was
asked if he has any advice for Harper.
"If (Harper) wants to play here, he's
going to play here," Strasburg said. "He doesn't need advice from
anybody to convince him otherwise. If he doesn't want to play here, then
we don't want him here."