Washington Nationals: Higher priority, Bryce Harper or Anthony Rendon?

Keeping Bryce Harper?

If this question about whether to keep Anthony Rendon or Bryce Harper did not involve money, Harper would probably win in a landslide. However, it’s not quite that simple for the Washington Nationals.

Over their careers, quite simply, Harper has been the significantly better hitter of the two players. Here are the rate stats for the two players over their entire career, entering Friday’s game against the New York Mets:

• Harper: .279 BA, .388 OBP, 14.8 BB%, 21.1 K%, .901 OPS, .234 ISO, 140 wRC+
• Rendon: .284 BA, .360 OBP, 10.1 BB%, 16.1 K%, .826 OPS, .182 ISO, 122 wRC+

Also, while Wins Above Replacement isn’t a rate stat, if we calculate their 162 game average, Harper takes that crown too. Although it’s a lot closer, as this factor’s in Rendon’s virtual gold glove defense, Rendon scores 5.32, while Harper gets a 5.4 figure.

The Nationals can’t simply let a talent like Harper’s leave without a fight. You can’t simply give him a blank check, given how you have Adam Eaton set to take over and the type of contract that could hamstring a team. But letting a generational talent leave rarely goes well for a team.

Also, aside from the cold, hard stats, Harper has the edge over Rendon in various other areas off the field. These need to be taken into account when deciding who to extend, almost as much as the on-field comparison.

For starters, the outfielder is over two years younger, despite being drafted a year earlier and making his debut a year earlier too. So in theory, Harper could even get better, or at the very least return to his MVP standard as he reaches his prime years.

And then you come to the factor that the Bryce Harper effect is also going to put more butts in seats. Rendon goes about his business in a quiet fashion, and while that’s a perfectly fine way to go about it, the exuberance of Harper is going to help pay for the difference in contracts in the boost in attendance. While it may not be a huge factor in the decision, it can’t be simply ignored.

That would allow the Nats to routinely trot out an outfield of Juan Soto, Victor Robles, and Bryce Harper. Pretty mouth-watering, huh? You could also, in theory, send those three players out in the heart of your order too, which would be bound to score runs for many years.

From the day he got to the big leagues, it had widely been assumed that Harper would leave the Nationals no matter what this year. Now, it appears a realistic proposition that he may stay.