Still no signing of Harper or Machado.
People are wondering why.
Kris Bryant, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall when his own free agency comes up, is frustrated:
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2...-manny-machado
So is Evan Longoria:
https://instagram.com/p/BsyUZScney4/
So why is this?
My theory is that two factors are coming together to push teams away from Harper and Machado.
The first is the general reluctance these days for teams to sink huge money into free agents for many years, even when they're only 26 like Harper and Machado. Teams are coming around to believe that developing young talent and then plugging holes with short contracts is the much more prudent way to go, as it carries far less risk.
But there's more to it.
The other problem is simply that neither player is a sure thing.
Machado killed his own value while with the Dodgers, showing everyone how he doesn't care about hustling, and also didn't perform particularly well with the team, especially in the postseason. Machado was supposed to be a game changer for the Dodgers, but they seemed to win the NL in spite of him, not because of him. The other problem is that he's only a .282 lifetime hitter with a career .822 OPS. Good numbers, sure, but not spectacular. And while he could have extra value playing shortstop, the problem is that nobody knows if he's any good at the position. He sucked at SS with the Orioles, but was actually very good with the Dodgers. I think Manny's hustling issues and other potential baggage pulls down his value enough to where he's simply not all that exciting to bring into any squad, especially because his offensive numbers are good rather than great.
Bryce Harper has battled recent injury problems AND has hit under .250 for two of the past three seasons. He seems to also choke under pressure (which also seems to plague Machado, from what we've seen). Harper also doesn't have a particularly easygoing personality, and there's some concern about his effect on the clubhouse. While I believe Harper has a lot more potential superstar upside than Machado, he's also a big injury risk for any team giving him huge money, and it's also hard to justify throwing $300m+ on a guy who hit sub-.250 in two of the past three years. Also, his defense has declined, for some reason.
Bottom line is both of these guys are useful players, but they're not worth breaking the bank over at this point. If either were super-elite once-in-a-generation hitters, they'd be getting the gigantic paycheck they had hoped for. But both guys are flawed, and nobody wants to invest THAT much money on them.