First, a brief bit of background for those who haven’t kept up with this minor contract dispute. Back when the Nationals were negotiating with Bryce Harper on deadline signing day in 2010, the haggling went down to the last minute before both sides agreed on a five year, $9.9 million dollar Major League contract. While such deals have since been outlawed by the CBA, they were pretty standard for the best draft picks at the time, and Harper was obviously a pretty great prospect with some significant leverage.

Because he signed a Major League deal, the contract specified guaranteed salaries for 2011 through 2015. However, because the Nationals called him up to the big leagues just a few weeks into the 2012 season, Harper would now qualify as a Super Two arbitration eligible candidate this winter if he wasn’t already under contract for $1.5 million from his original deal. Generally, players who signed these contracts were granted opt-out provisions in case they became arbitration eligible, so that the guaranteed salaries were essentially guaranteed minimums instead, with the player being able to choose the path of arbitration if it would get them higher salaries at that point in the deal.

For example, Rick Porcello used just such a clause to opt-out of the $1.3 million he would have been owed in 2012, choosing to go to arbitration as a Super Two eligible instead. The Tigers ended up paying him $3.1 million to avoid arbitration, which not only gave him more money in that season, but set him up for a higher base to get arbitration raises from, significantly increasing his total salary over the last four years.

Now, that brings us back to Harper. According to the Nationals, Scott Boras forgot to ask for that clause to be included in the deal; Boras denies this, and refused to sign the paperwork when it was sent over in the wake of the agreement. The two sides kicked the can down the road at the time, agreeing that if it became an issue, they would resolve it through independent arbitration. Since Harper is Super Two eligible, it became an issue, and the two sides were scheduled to have their grievance heard tomorrow.

Instead, however, they have settled on a two year contract that seems like a pretty fair compromise: Harper will get the $2.5 million he was projected to make in arbitration this year, but he also agreed to a guaranteed $5 million salary in 2016, a modest raise that limits the exposure for Washington if he has a breakout season this year. Harper gets a little more money up front, and limits his risk in case of an injury or a disappointing performance, while the Nationals defend against having to give him a huge raise next winter if he goes off.

Harper did skip NatsFest this weekend due to his unhappiness with the situation, but I wouldn’t expect this dispute will do much to the team’s chances of signing him long-term. This is the kind of thing that is fairly easily forgotten, especially when the next time these two negotiate, the asking price will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.