{"id":537855,"date":"2026-01-25T17:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/537855\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T17:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:31:15","slug":"phillies-confirm-interest-in-bryce-harper-move-after-spat-with-front-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/537855\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Confirm Interest In Bryce Harper Move After Spat With Front Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Philadelphia<\/p>\n

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 09: Bryce Harper #3 of the Philadelphia Phillies stands in the dugout prior to facing the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park on April 09, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

After a second straight year of regular season success and playoff disappointment, the Philadelphia Phillies are returning with essentially the same roster in place for another try.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s biggest offseason moves were to reunite with designated hitter Kyle Schwarber and everyday catcher JT Realmuto. But that doesn\u2019t mean the team arrived at this point in the winter without any controversy.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the season ended, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was asked about franchise slugger Bryce Harper\u2019s campaign and his response turned some heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t have an elite season like he has in the past,\u201d Dombrowski said, as relayed by MLB.com\u2019s Todd Zolecki<\/a>. \u201cCan he rise to the next level again? I don\u2019t really know that answer. He\u2019s the one that will dictate that more than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Following that statement, Dombrowski attempted to walk some of the criticism back. Then Harper spoke out about how the resulting trade talk hurt his feelings and posted a video of himself on social media in a shirt that read \u201cNOT ELITE.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Dombrowski\u2019s original point, that Harper seemed to have lost a step in his last campaign, will stand unless the slugger can emphatically defy it at the plate next year. And, in the meantime, it seems like the Phillies want to move him out of the lineup spot he has held for most of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to talk to the players about it, but you could see a change this year, flipping those guys around a little bit,\u201d Phillies manager Rob Thomson said earlier this week, per The Philadelphia Inquirer\u2019s Marcus Hayes<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And when asked if those changes would involve moving Harper out of the third spot in the lineup, Thomson confirmed that he is indeed interested in seeing the face of the franchise moved.<\/p>\n

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The lineup order between Schwarber and Harper is an important matter for the Phillies, as the pair represents their two most productive sluggers. And the one who hits after the other will be seen as \u201cprotection\u201d for his teammate \u2014 opposing pitchers will be more likely to throw hittable offerings to a batter who is coming up right before a slugging threat, as they won\u2019t want to serve up a walk.<\/p>\n

While Harper has traditionally served as the protection for Schwarber, the team might want to switch things around to give Harper more of an opportunity to return to his elite status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 09: Bryce Harper #3 of the Philadelphia Phillies stands in the dugout prior to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,1207,4,144,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-537855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bryce-harper","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-phillies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115956933448582889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}