The Yankees' Path to Creating Dream Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge Pairing

It had been easy to assume Bryce Harper would be fitted for pinstripes the moment he became a free agent after 2018. Then a 6'7", 282-pound problem with that idea arose in 2017.

Unless, of course, you subscribe to what they say about problems being incognito opportunities.

The 6'7", 282-pounder is Aaron Judge, who spent 2017 turning the Yankees' right field weakness into one of Major League Baseball's biggest strengths via a 1.049 OPS and a rookie-record 52 home runs. By July, he had joined Harper as a leading All-Star vote-getter. Come November, he was the American League Rookie of the Year and MVP runner-up.

While Judge might be seen as a barrier between Harper and a lucrative job patrolling right field at Yankee Stadium, a far more intriguing picture involves an Avengers-style team-up.

Through six seasons with the Washington Nationals, Harper is the owner of a .902 OPS, 150 home runs, five All-Star nods, a Rookie of the Year and an MVP. He won his MVP in 2015 on the strength of an MLB-best 1.109 OPS and 42 homers.

And, oh yeah, he's only 25 years old now and will be just 26 when free agency beckons after 2018. Judge is also only 25 now and will be 26 next winter.

Thus, a question for the smirking, palm-rubbing schemers among us: How might these two become teammates?

First, the Yankees will need to decide they even want Harper when—this would be presumptuous if he wasn't represented by the notoriously extension-averse Scott Boras—he hits the open market. This isn't a given after Judge's emergence demoted a post-2018 pursuit of Harper from a necessity to a luxury.

But whereas that would be a deal-breaker for many other teams, the obvious difference is that the Yankees can afford luxuries.

Their Opening Day payrolls have been hovering around and above $200 million since 2005. The 2018-19 offseason is set to provide a perfect excuse to keep it up. Behold the ginormous difference between the Yankees' 2019 obligations and their payroll peak in relation to the rest of MLB:

There's a $153.9 million gap between where the Yankees will be and how high they've gone. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers ($164.3 million) and Philadelphia Phillies ($172.4 million) have that beat—and that's assuming the Dodgers will push their payroll over $270 million again, which is unlikely.

Mind you, this isn't counting the Yankees' arbitration expenses. That's projected to be $35 million in 2018. It should be even more in 2019 when Luis Severino and Greg Bird enter arbitration. Judge will get his turn in 2020.

This doesn't behoove the Yankees to avoid big expenditures in the meantime, but refraining could only help them in the Harper sweepstakes. After all, said sweepstakes is likely to push his cost beyond Giancarlo Stanton's $325 million territory and into the uncharted waters of $400 million or even $500 million.

What helps is that they're finally positioned to follow through on their long-held desire to get dodge the luxury tax. Their competitive balance payroll for 2018 is projected at $170.3 million, well south of the $197 million threshold.

It also helps that they don't have any major holes to fill. They could use a starting pitcher and another hitter. But they don't need to go after any of the big-ticket free agents (e.g. Yu Darvish, Jake Arrieta, J.D. Martinez or Eric Hosmer), and they can fill both needs by spending a few million bucks on two-way Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani.

At least to the extent that money can be no object in this scenario, the Yankees are therefore well set up to ensure money is no object when Harper is there for the taking.

That would leave just one priority: selling him on a move to New York.

That should entail preparing an opening in right field. A full-on position switch would be a tad too far, but getting Judge experience in left field, first base and/or at DH is another one for the "Could Only Help" file.

The bigger challenge could be selling Harper on his new digs. One would think he'd be as thrilled as the next lefty-swinging slugger at the prospect of playing at Yankee Stadium. But perhaps not.

"I hit the ball to left field a lot, and Yankee Stadium is pretty big in left field," Harper said in July, according to Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media.

There are two counterpoints. Harper's amazing 2015 coincided with a spike in his pull rate, and a graph of all the non-homer fly balls and line drives he's hit overlaid onto Yankee Stadium teases quite a lot to be gained from regular shots at the park's short right field porch:

Image courtesy of BaseballSavant.MLB.com.

Then again, perhaps Harper's gripe won't be about Yankee Stadium. Perhaps it'll be about New York.

"Going to New York City for a couple days...I want to get out of there in about three days," he said, per Miller. "You go there for three days, it's pretty crazy and hectic and I want to go back home. I want to go back home to D.C. There's nothing like [D.C]."

For what it's worth, Harper is the last guy who would be intimidated by playing in New York.

He's been operating under intense scrutiny since he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a 16-year-old, yet it hasn't stopped him from becoming one of the sport's brightest stars. He's also a massive fan of Yankees legend Mickey Mantle and is an admirer of the new crop of Yankees stars.

"They've got a lot of great talent, but that's their team and Judge is doing a great job being a leader of that team," he said, per Miller. "He's paving the way for all of those guys out there."

This current crop of Yankees stars didn't need Harper to come within a win of the World Series in 2017. And that was just their opening statement. Judge, Severino, Bird, Gary Sanchez and others are just getting started. Beneath them is a cushion of prospects led by shortstop Gleyber Torres.

The Yankees won't be the only fit for Harper after 2018. The Phillies and Dodgers will have the funds he craves. The Chicago Cubs should have enough money and might be Harper's preferred destination due to his love of the city and his friendship with fellow Las Vegas native, Kris Bryant.

The idea of a Harper-Judge pairing, however, is one the Yankees should be dreaming about. When the time comes, all they'd have to do is make good on the doable task of making it happen. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant. Payroll and contract data courtesy of Cot's Baseball Contracts.