The Philadelphia Phillies could very easily become Major League Baseball’s next powerhouse.
Bryce Harper agreed to sign a 13-year, $330 million deal with the Phillies on Thursday, and it’s still possible an old pal winds up joining him in Philly down the road.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout can become a free agent after the 2020 season, and the 27-year-old grew up a diehard Phillies fan, so he might be receptive to potential offers from Philadelphia upon hitting the open market.
Harper’s deal with the Phillies has a relatively manageable average annual value of $25.4 million, which leaves plenty of space for Trout to come aboard. As ESPN’s Jeff Passan pointed out, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
“And because the deal’s average annual value is $25.4 million, it gets flexibility to spend more in coming offseasons and not run the risk of exceeding the luxury-tax threshold,” Passan wrote Friday on ESPN.com. “In other words: Yes, an outfield with Harper and Philadelphia-area native Mike Trout is realistic.”
Adding Trout to a lineup featuring the likes of Harper, Rhys Hoskins, Jean Segura and J.T. Realmuto could make the Phillies a baseball superteam.
Harper and Trout actually were teammates at one point, sharing the outfield for the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League in 2011. The two got to know each other pretty well during that short, six-week season.
We’ll leave it at this: If Harper ends up trying to recruit Trout to the Phillies, we wouldn’t be surprised.
