After a prolonged negotiation—with several teams hopping into the mix at the 11th hour—baseball’s biggest free agent, Bryce Harper, landed with the Philadelphia Phillies. While his 13-year, $330M deal set a record for the most total money on an MLB contract in history, its annual average value is lower than a number of existing contracts.
But he did break one other impressive record.
Earlier this week, Fanatics—which represents the “largest collection of official fan gear from all the leagues”—claimed that Harper had sold more jerseys in a 24-hour period than anyone they’ve ever tracked. Given that Fanatics has been around since the ’90s, there’s at least some credibility to the claim that Harper’s is the fastest-selling jersey of all time. Bryce was up against some solid competition as far as recent jersey-buying opportunities go: He bested LeBron’s jersey tally within that same 24- to 48-hour window.
A few threads we’re interested in pulling at: Do baseball jerseys sell better than hoops jerseys in general because they have sleeves? Will a Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving relocation shatter the 24-hour jersey record this summer? These are narratives to watch. For now, Harper’s No. 3 is a status item: If you were lucky enough to score a few of the new shirts, you might need to think about flipping them to afford Phils tix this year.
