Washington Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo acknowledged last winter that once Bryce Harper got to the free agent market things changed. Before then, they had the exclusive right to try to negotiate an extension that would have kept the 2010 No. 1 overall pick in D.C., but when all 29 other major league teams (or at least those who could afford it) were able to bid it all had to go differently.
“Our thought process was this,” Rizzo told 106.7 the FAN in D.C.’s Sports Junkies.
“We wanted to keep him and so our strategy was we have exclusivity to negotiate with him until the first day of free agency and then he becomes a free agent to everybody.