It’s over. It’s finally over. The Bryce Harper/Chicago Cubs false rumors can finally be put to bed. The MVP right fielder agreed to a deal on Thursday with the Philadelphia Phillies for 13 years and $330 million according to Jon Heyman.

After months of being told the Cubs would not be signing Harper and continuing to think they would, Cubs fans can now rest easy seeing that they got their hopes up for nothing. Shocking right?

As for the contract, the $330 million will go down as the largest contract in total value in the history of Major League Baseball, surpassing the $325 million deal that Giancarlo Stanton signed. The annual value is just around $25 million which is a smaller amount than what Manny Machado signed for just a week ago.

The deal also includes no opt-outs. An interesting decision on both sides, but according to Ken Rosenthal, it was something Harper actually pushed for. Because of that, we will all still be watching Harper suit up for the Phils in the year 2031. TWENTY-THIRTY-ONE. Insanity.

It’s an interesting contract from Philadelphia’s perspective, for sure. People love to look at contracts just like this one and say that they never work out in the end. But in reality, it is never the large annual value contracts that are bad by the end of the deal, it is always the long contracts. Now Harper is a different case because he is only 26-years-old, but a team would be much wiser signing a superstar like Bryce to a two year contract worth a total of $100 million rather than pony up $330 million over the course of 13 seasons.

Being able to get than money off the books and move on with the next phase of an organizational game plan is important. Flexibility is the name of the game in dealing with professional sports contracts. 13 years with no opt-outs provides zero flexibility.

With all that being said, that is probably one of the reasons why Harper decided on the contract offer sheet that he did. It provides him financial stability for years to come, and while he potential left some money on the table in the short-term according to his agent, Scott Boras, I’m sure he will gladly pocket his $330 million over $45 million a year on a short-term deal (probably from the Dodgers).

This now leaves the Cubs with the roster we should have expected all along going into the 2019 season. The outfield will be patrolled by the same group as last year, with Kyle Schwarber, Albert Almora, Ian Happ, and Jason Heyward all getting just about equal playing time among the positions.