It was the talk of the summer, at least until the Home Run Derby lit up the District of Columbia. Could the Washington Nationals, struggling in the middle of the pack in the National League, actually trade Bryce Harper? As has been reported before, the Houston Astros were in talks to acquire Harper’s expiring contract from the Nationals in a trade last summer. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that Nationals ownership vetoed the move. At spring training Thursday, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow confirmed to reporters that an agreement “in principle” to trade for Harper wound up falling through. Jeff Luhnow acknowledged the #Astros had an agreement in place to land Bryce Harper in a trade last season that fell through: “It didn’t happen. So we moved on.” pic.twitter.com/r9ZXjasOVH — Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) February 14, 2019 “There was an agreement in principle in place and it didn’t get over the finish line for whatever reason, out of our control. But, yeah, we had interest,” Luhnow said. “We had worked out an agreement with players both ways.” It’s worth noting that the Astros share a spring training facility with the Nationals in West Palm Beach, Florida. Awkward. In the end, it doesn’t appear that Harper will play for either team this season, as he’s reportedly mainly considering the Phillies and Giants. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.<doc-sep>Bryce Harper really was nearly an Astro. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow confirmed an earlier report on Thursday that the Astros had an agreement to acquire Harper at last season’s trade deadline. “There was an agreement in principle in place and it didn’t get over the finish line for whatever reason, out of our control. But, yeah, we had interest,” Luhnow said, via the Houston Chronicle. “We had worked out an agreement with players both ways.” The Nationals made Harper available at the deadline and placed him on revocable trade waivers. The Athletic reported in November that the Nationals and Astros had an agreement for a trade that was topped by pitching prospect J.B. Bukauskas, but the deal collapsed after Washington’s ownership refused to approve the move. “Certainly a player like that would have helped us,” Luhnow said about Harper. The Astros had a historic regular season in 2018, winning a franchise-record 103 games last season before falling to the Red Sox in the ALCS. Harper nixed the Nationals’ 10-year, $300 million deal at the end of the regular season and he remains a free agent as spring training started this week.<doc-sep>WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Bryce Harper is the biggest name in baseball right now, despite still being an unsigned free agent as spring training begins for the 2019 season. Manny Machado, Dallas Keuchel, Marwin Gonzalez ... it's a long list of widely available well-known names, and it's been the main topic inside clubhouses as pitchers start firing away for Opening Day. BRIAN T. SMITH: Baseball's free-agent market is clearly broken But on a sunny Thursday morning at the Fitteam Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, general manager Jeff Luhnow connected an ongoing 2019 conversation back to the summer heat of '18. The architect of the Astros' rebuild and first World Series title confirmed that the franchise had a deal in place to wrap Harper in orange and blue prior to the playoffs. The Astros won a franchise-record 103 games in 2018 before falling 4-1 to the eventual champion Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. "There was an agreement in principle in place and it didn't get over the finish line for whatever reason, out of our control. But, yeah, we had interest," Luhnow said toward the end of a media interview. "We had worked out an agreement with players both ways." The Astros' trade-deadline connection to Harper was first reported by The Athletic. Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, George Springer, Carlos Correa, Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Keuchel, Gonzalez and (almost) Harper. Kelly Gavin/MLB Photos via Getty Images "Certainly a player like that would have helped us," said Luhnow, referring to the 26-year-old outfielder, who hit .279 with 184 home runs, 521 RBIs and .900 OPS during seven seasons with Washington, winning the 2015 National League MVP and earning six All-Star selections. The Astros could be entering a new spring with back-to-back world titles, aiming for a three-peat and clearly on the verge of a dynasty. "That one didn't get reported for a long time and then someone mentioned it late this offseason," Luhnow said. "I think fans would be surprised at the types of players at times we've gone after and how close we've come on some of 'em." Some within the Astros wanted the club to acquire former Miami/current New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton during the early stage of the Astros' rebuild. In reality, the rebuilt Astros have won 204 games the last two seasons, made the playoffs in three of the their four years under manager A.J. Hinch, and are title contenders again in 2019. BRIAN T. SMITH: Great expectations are routine for these Astros Few thought the Astros would actually end up with Verlander as the final trade deadline approached in 2017. A January 2018 trade for Cole surprised the league. The lefthanded-hitting Harper slugging bombs inside Minute Maid Park in the final baseball months of 2018? It really did almost happen. "It is an indication that every year during the summer we're going to do -- we're going to look at all alternatives to helping our club, especially if we're in a position where we think we're looking good for the playoffs and we know who our opposition might be," Luhnow said.<doc-sep>
With the baseball world watching where Bryce Harper will end up as a free agent, one team is confirming that they nearly traded for Harper last year. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic had reported last November that the Houston Astros had a deal in place to acquire Harper before the trade deadline in July of 2018, but that Washington Nationals ownership had vetoed it. Now, the general manager of the Astros has confirmed that the report was true. "There was an agreement in principle in place and it didn't get over the finish line for whatever reason, out of our control. But, yeah, we had interest," Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said at spring training Thursday, per the Houston Chronicle. "We had worked out an agreement with players both ways." Luhnow also said that "that one didn't get reported for a long time and then someone mentioned it late this offseason," presumably referring to the Rosenthal report. That report stated that the deal was reached on July 30 of last year and that players going to Washington would have been pitching prospect J.B. Bukauskas and possibly also catcher Garrett Stubbs. It had been rumored around the deadline last year that Harper was briefly on the trading block, but the Nationals announced after the deadline passed that Harper would not be traded. The Astros, after not making the trade, won the National League West and beat Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs, but they lost in the American League Championship Series to the eventual champion Boston Red Sox. The Astros won the World Series in 2017. Interesting, but given the sort of control Nats ownership likes to assert, saying you had a deal in place but for the approval of Nats ownership means that, in reality, you did not have a deal in place. https://t.co/HkIjt0LThr — Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) February 15, 2019 The Nationals did not make the playoffs in 2018, after qualifying several years in a row. The Astros have not been mentioned frequently as free agent suitors for Harper, while the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants are seen as the most likely destinations for the star outfielder, who has played his entire career so far with Washington. There has been little news about Harper this week, even as spring training gets underway across baseball. Several players on the Phillies, per the Inquisitr, said this week that they are "optimistic" that Harper or Manny Machado will end up in Philadelphia. Earlier in the week, reports stated that Harper was looking to possibly sign a short-term deal with San Francisco, but reporter Jon Heyman tweeted that "despite rumored offers/wishes of teams, the word is Bryce Harper is not signing — or even considering — short-term deals."