With Judge and Stanton already on the books for a long time and other holes to throw money at.

I think the Nationals chances of signing him are stronger now than they have been in a while. Mostly because the off season market was so unbelievably tepid this year, it feels less likely anybody is going to go north of $300 million when two years ago baseball people were floating $400 million. It will take a long time for these things to come to light, but I suspect that there's a chance he already turned down the best offer he will see anywhere from the Nationals sometime in the last year or two.

That said, Harper seems to want to break the bank. And if he wants to break the bank, there is not a whole lot of assurances anywhere. You have to imagine that the Cubs, Dodgers, Phillies, Red Sox, and Cardinals are right there in the mix. But there's always a mystery team out there. Like when the Diamondbacks swooped in and gave Greinke 6/$206.5 in his opt out year. It would be really cool if the Nationals signed him because generational talent doesn't come along very often, but nobody ever really felt like he was going to be here forever.