Bryce Harper touched down in Phillies camp, pulled on a black T-shirt – no, not the black T-shirt that went viral over the holidays – and summarized one of the weirdest weeks in an offseason of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Dave (Dombrowski) to come out and say those things,\u201c Harper said, \u201dit\u2019s kind of wild to me still.”<\/p>\n
Key word: Still.<\/p>\n
Because this was Sunday, 122 days after the Phillies\u2019 highest-ranking baseball official gave a 90-second answer 34 minutes into a 54-minute news conference about whether Harper\u2019s good-but-not-great 2025 season was a one-off or the start of a downward trend.<\/p>\n
Pardon the rehashed sound bite, but well, here goes: \u201cOf course he\u2019s still a quality player,\u201d Dombrowski said, \u201cstill an All-Star-caliber player. He didn\u2019t have an elite season like he has had in the past. And I guess we only find out if he becomes elite (again), or if he continues to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cue the hysteria, fomented by sports-talk radio and social media. And a candid answer to a good question exploded into unfounded speculation that the Phillies would consider trading Harper. (For what it\u2019s worth, John Middleton is clear about wanting Harper to go into the Hall of Fame with a \u201cP\u201d on his plaque.)<\/p>\n
Harper is self-aware. He wasn\u2019t satisfied with last season. There were factors, including an inflamed right wrist that caused him to miss 22 games. But he also swung at a career-high rate of pitches out of the zone, a problem given that Harper saw fewer strikes than any hitter in baseball. He also delivered fewer hits in the clutch than ever before.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously,\u201d he said after digesting it for four months, \u201cnot the best year of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the substance of Dombrowski\u2019s comments didn\u2019t bother Harper as much as the forum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big thing for me was, when we first met with this organization (in 2019) it was, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re always going to keep things in-house, and we expect you to do the same thing,\u2019\u201d Harper said. \u201cSo, when that didn\u2019t happen, it kind of took me for a run a little bit. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a wild situation, that even happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dombrowski reached out to Harper about 10 days later. The whole affair seemed to be over. Then, in December, a video posted to Harper\u2019s TikTok account showing him working out while wearing a T-shirt with two words across the chest: \u201cNOT ELITE.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is Harper using Dombrowski\u2019s critique as motivation?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need to be motivated to be great in my career or anything else,\u201c Harper said. \u201dThat\u2019s just not a motivating factor for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, why the T-shirt?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey made the shirts for me and I wore them,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they\u2019re going to make them, I\u2019m going to wear them.\u201d<\/p>\n
OK then. Just don\u2019t be surprised if Harper channels all of this into an MVP-worthy season. Because elite athletes have a way of turning more innocuous slights into fuel. Michael Jordan was notorious for it. Tom Brady, too.<\/p>\n
The last time anyone publicly poked Harper, he stared a hole through then-Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia after homering twice in Game 3 of the 2023 divisional playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just know his mindset is he wants to perform,\u201c manager Rob Thomson said. \u201cHe loves playing the game. He wants to perform for himself, for his teammates, for the organization, for the city of Philadelphia. With the way he\u2019s come into camp, the shape that he\u2019s in, we\u2019ve got to keep him healthy and I think he\u2019s going to have a huge year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper does appear to have bulked up since last season. Other than hiring a new trainer, he said he didn\u2019t change much about his offseason program at home in Nashville, Tenn.<\/p>\n
The wrist, which hitting coach Kevin Long said bothered Harper before he went on the injured list last season, is fully healed. Harper said he hasn\u2019t felt pain since June.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally happy about that,\u201d he said. \u201cMy offseason was pretty similar to what I do each offseason. Just trying to make sure my body is where it needs to be. Just pretty much all the same stuff, getting in and making sure I\u2019m ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
One notable difference: Harper will play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. He wanted to play three years ago but was recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery. He hasn\u2019t represented the country since he was a teenager.<\/p>\n
Maybe the stakes of the WBC will be invigorating for Harper, never a fan of the tedium of spring training.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m pretty excited to play,\u201d Harper said. \u201cMy face might not look it a lot of times. But I\u2019m excited to be out there. I love being part of the culture and the group and Philly baseball. I don\u2019t want that to ever not be the notion. I don\u2019t smile all the time or I don\u2019t laugh all the time, but I enjoy playing this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
With baseball returning to the Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles, MLB is considering allowing players to compete, a scenario for which Harper has long lobbied.<\/p>\n
In that case, the WBC would be a precursor. And Team USA is loaded. For years, many of the sport\u2019s top starting pitchers resisted the WBC. But Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes are at the top of the U.S. team\u2019s rotation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to take a step back and act like you are 16, 17, 18 years old again playing with your buddies,\u201d Harper said, \u201creally looking forward to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd having Aaron Judge hitting behind me is going to be a lot of fun as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which brings up another question that looms over Harper this spring: How will the Phillies protect him in the lineup?<\/p>\n
Thomson has considered putting Kyle Schwarber behind Harper. It was the other way around for most of last season. But then who will protect Schwarber? Alec Bohm and new right fielder Adolis Garc\u00eda are the leading cleanup-hitter candidates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe four spot has a huge impact,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI think the numbers in the four spot weren\u2019t very good last year for our whole team. Whoever\u2019s in that four spot is going to have a big job to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as his relationship with Dombrowski?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe keep things in-house, that\u2019s just how it\u2019s always been, and in that moment, it just didn\u2019t happen,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI think my locker is always open for them to come and talk to me, and vice versa. It is what it is right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bryce Harper touched down in Phillies camp, pulled on a black T-shirt – no, not the black T-shirt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[2309,5,2325,1207,81,19,2308,4,25,185,2311],"class_list":{"0":"post-575118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-baseball-teams","11":"tag-bryce-harper","12":"tag-kyle-schwarber","13":"tag-major-league-baseball","14":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-team-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116078822467753352","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575118","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=575118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}