Bryce Harper, welcome to Los Angeles? The free-agent superstar wasn’t part of Friday afternoon’s seven-player deal between the Reds and Dodgers, but he’s the one potentially most impacted by it. The move—which saw the Dodgers send Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Alex Wood and Kyle Farmer to Cincinnati for Homer Bailey and a pair of prospects—essentially functions as a hard reset for Los Angeles’ payroll and outfield, two things that needed to be cleared in order to make Harper a reality.
Well, in truth, it’s one thing that required some rejiggering and another that could’ve been ignored, given the Dodgers’ financial state.