Report: Nats offered Harper more than $300 million

The Washington Nationals offered free agent outfielder Bryce Harper more than $300 million, according to former Nats GM Jim Bowden.

Bowden tweeted early Friday morning Washington offered much more than the reported $10-year, $300 million deal made on the final day of the 2018 regular season.

#Nationals last offer to Bryce Harper was actually “much more than the $300m being reported by the media” according to a source. Apparently, The 10-year $300m offer was actually just the team’s 1st offer to Harper.

In a December interview with Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier on 106.7 The Fan, Nationals managing principal owner Mark Lerner said the Nats made one offer and it was the best they could do.

"Well, when we met with them and we gave them the offer, we told them, 'This is the best we can do.' We went right to the finish line very quickly,'" Lerner said in December. "And we said, 'If this is of interest to you, please come back to us and we'll see whether we can finish it up.' But we just couldn't afford to put more than that in and still be able to put a team together that had a chance to win the NL East or go farther than that."

Reports surfaced this week, Harper and his agent, Scott Boras, met with Nationals owner Ted Lerner, Mark's father, "for five hours on the Saturday before Christmas."

MLB Network Insider Jon Heyman reported Friday the Philadelphia Phillies were setting up a meeting with Harper and the Nationals remain interested in keeping Harper.

phillies are in process of setting up a face to face meeting with bryce harper, as @JSalisburyNBCS 1st reported. rival nats are obviously interested in retaining harper. chisox seem like a long shot for harper at moment, but mystery team(s) always possible.

The Bryce Harper Sweepstakes is once again heating up.

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