Bryce Harper

From BR Bullpen

Bryce Harper.jpg

Bryce Aron Max Harper
(Bam-Bam, Mondo, Harp, Big Kid or The Showman)

BR page

Biographical Information[edit]

Bryce Harper was the first overall pick in the 2010 amateur draft, the National League Rookie of the Year in 2012 and the NL MVP in 2021.

Harper went 16 for 28 with six doubles, four homers and 16 RBI in eight games in the 2008 Youth Pan Am Games to help the USA win the Gold Medal. The next year, he batted .626/.723/1.339 with 14 homers, 22 doubles, 9 triples, 36 steals, 76 runs and 55 RBI in 115 games as a high school sophomore. He was the only underclassman picked for either the Baseball America first team or second team High School All-America Team, chosen as the top catcher in high school ball in the USA. Not only that, he became the first underclassman to ever win the Baseball America High School Player of the Year Award; Joe Mauer had been the only catcher to win the honor previously.

Harper got his GED after his sophomore year of high school so he could play junior college baseball in 2010, not finding the high school game challenging enough. Going into the Junior College World Series, Harper was hitting .442/.524/.986 with 29 home runs, 89 RBI, 88 runs and 18 stolen bases in 62 games. He was leading all of junior college baseball in both homers and RBI despite being only 17. He was named MVP of the Scenic West Athletic Conference. Harper made the cover of Sports Illustrated in June 2009, the first high schooler to appear on the magazine's cover since basketball's LeBron James in 2002.

Harper once hit a 502-homer at Tropicana Field, something no major leaguer had done before the amateur slugger did so.

The Washington Nationals took him first overall in the 2010 amateur draft. The scout was Mitch Sokol. He became the third-youngest player to be taken first following Tim Foli and Ken Griffey Jr., and the 5th catcher, following Steve Chilcott, Mike Ivie, Danny Goodwin, B.J. Surhoff and Joe Mauer. However, the Nationals announced that they would move him to the outfield, once signed, in order to speed up his arrival in the major leagues.

As an amateur, he had been criticized for his attitude as well as some idiosyncracies like using heavy eye black and a fancy batting ritual before each at-bat. These concerns about his attitude and maturity were reinforced by an incident which occured only a few days prior to the draft, when Harper was ejected from a critical game and earned a two-game suspension for showing up an umpire in the NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series in Grand Junction, CO. Still, after the season, he was the recipient of the 2010 Golden Spikes Award honoring the best college baseball player in the United States; he was only the second player at a community college to receive the award, after Alex Fernandez in 1990.

Harper was advised by Scott Boras, who was known for pushing contract negotiations to the limit. It was expected that he would seek a signing bonus similar to the $15 million granted by the Nationals to Stephen Strasburg, the number one pick in the 2009 amateur draft. On August 16, a minute before the midnight deadline for signing picks was to to expire, Harper signed a major league contract with the Nationals worth $9.9 million. He was to begin his professional career with the GCL Nationals, but instead was used in the instructional league, where the games are more akin to exhibition games. He hit .319 with a .418 on-base percentage in that context, then hit .343 in the Arizona Fall League, facing a significantly higher level of competition.

Even before he had played his first true minor league game, Harper was named Baseball's America's #1 prospect on its annual top-100 prospect list released in the off-season. He caused quite a stir when he made his first appearance at the Nationals' spring training camp in Viera, FL on February 21, 2011, hitting nothing but hard line drives in batting practice, then being mobbed by autograph seekers as he tried to leave the practice field. While observers were wondering how long it would take him to reach the majors, Harper had definite views on the issue. He told reporters that he planned to make the Nats' opening day roster. He hit .389 in 13 spring games before the front office decided to send him to the Class A Hagerstown Suns of the South Atlantic League to begin the season. However, he sprained his ankle in an intrasquad game on March 21, but this did not delay his minor league debut.

Harper singled in his first minor league game for Hagerstown on April 7th, then stole second; he later got a bunt single to finish the day 2-for-4. After a slowish start, the cream quickly rose to the top in his case, as he was named the SALLY League's Player of the week for the first week in May, while in the midst of an 18-game hitting streak that pushed his batting average to .377; the hot streak once again brought out questions about when and to where his next promotion would be, but the Nationals insisted he would not make his major league debut that year. More questions were raised about his maturity later in the year, as he kept showing up umpires when disagreeing with strike calls. In a much-publicized incident on June 6th, he hit a homer off Greensboro's Zach Neal, then flipped his bat before starting his trot and blew a kiss at Neal while circling the bases. Not surprisingly, he was brushed back in his next plate appearance. Before playing in the South Atlantic League All-Star Game later that month, he defended his controversial style of play to journalists, stating: "I could really care less what people say about me." Shortly thereafter, he was named to the United States team for the 2011 Futures Game. The inevitable promotion happened on July 4th, as he was moved up to the AA Harrisburg Senators; he had hit .318 with 14 homers and 46 RBI and stolen 19 bases at Hagerstown. He went 2 for 3 in his debut in the Eastern League, with Nationals GM Mike Rizzo stating that he would finish the season there and then play in the Arizona Fall League for a second season. He found the harder competition at AA to be a challenge when he first played for Harrisburg, as he hit only .171 in his first 11 games. He had upped his average to .248 in 31 games at AA when he made the news again for the wrong reason on August 11th: he was ejected from a game for arguing a third-strike call by umpire Max Guyll; he slammed his helmet on the ground in disgust to draw the thumbing, then drew a line in the sand outside of the plate and started berating the umpire until one of his coaches intervened to prevent an uglier scene from developing. On August 18th, he had to leave a game because of a pulled hamstring suffered while running from first base to third base and was placed on the disabled list. The Nationals decided to end his season at that time, happy with his first results in professional baseball.

In 2012, he headed into spring training confident he could make the Nationals immediately. New manager Davey Johnson echoed that confidence, stating that he was open to the possibility of moving RF Jayson Werth to centerfield in order to put Harper in right - if he showed if he was mentally prepared to handle the task. A couple of issues came to complicate the decision however. First, Harper had to sit out a number of days with a hamstring injury, missing a batch of preseason games, and then centerfielder Rick Ankiel was hit by the injury bug. Second, observers began to question whether it was wise to force a position change on the 33-year-old Werth, when Harper would be a much more logical choice as the Nats' future centerfielder, given his tremendous athletic prowess. Comparisons to Dale Murphy, another catcher converted to centerfield who found success at the new position, were rife, prompting Johnson and Nats management to seriously consider that option. On March 18th, the Nats assigned him to the AAA Syracuse Chiefs, announcing that he would be playing centerfield in anticipation of making his big league debut later that year. The sojourn in Syracuse was short-lived: he was hitting .250 with one home run in April when he got the long-anticipated call to the nation's capital on April 28th, to replace Ryan Zimmerman who was placed on the disabled list. He was to play left field in the absence of Michael Morse, also out with a injury for an extended period.

Harper made his much-anticipated debut for the Nationals on April 28, 2012, starting in left field and batting seventh in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium; he was the youngest player in the majors. In his first at-bat, he grounded back to pitcher Chad Billingsley. He got his first hit in the 7th, a two-out double, then in the 9th hit a sacrifice fly off Javy Guerra to put the Nats ahead, 2-1. They added another run, but closer Henry Rodriguez ruined the fairy tale by blowing the save in the bottom of the 9th, and Matt Kemp ended the game with a walk-off home run to lead the 10th, giving LA a 4-3 win. In his second game the next day, he started in centerfield, went 1 for 3 with a walk and made a great catch, robbing Juan Uribe of a double by snatching a ball high off the fence in the 4th inning; Werth had been scratched from the line-up with a migraine headache, and Syracuse teammate Tyler Moore was making his major league debut alongside Bryce in left. He was on the winning end for the first time on May 2nd, when he hit a pair of doubles, the second putting him on base for Ian Desmond's walk-off home run off Arizona Diamondbacks closer J.J. Putz, giving Washington a 5-4 win at home. Of course, controversy was never far when it comes to Harper, and on May 6th, he was plunked by the Philadelphia Phillies' Cole Hamels in the 1st inning; Hamels explained after the game that it had been a deliberate gesture, in reaction to Bryce's cocky attitude, an admission that would earn him a five-game suspension. For his part, Harper immediately took his revenge when he stole home off Hamels later that inning, taking off on a pick-off throw to first base. In that game, RF Werth suffered a broken wrist, meaning that for the next few weeks at least, Harper had a position to play even as Morse was about to return. Another unusual incident took place on May 11th, when he swung a bat at the dugout wall in frustration after grounding out; the bat bounced and struck him on the left side of his head just above eye level; he finished the game with a huge blood stain on his face, and had to have 10 stitches to close the gaping wound, having almost cost himself an eye out of sheer recklessness. Still sporting a large bandage over his eye, he hit his first major league homer on May 14th, off the San Diego Padres' Tim Stauffer. It was hit to dead center at Nationals Park as part of an 8-5 win; he was the youngest player to hit as home run in the majors since Adrian Beltre, who was a month younger when he belted his first major league long ball on September 25, 1998. He ended his first month in the majors by being named the National League's Rookie of the Month for May, after hitting .271 with 21 runs scored, 4 home runs and 10 RBI. In June he added to his growing legend when he responded to a question in an interview by telling the reporter, "That's a clown question, bro." The phrase quickly caught on nationally, and Harper was quick to copyright it. It was printed on tee-shirts and used by a micro-brewer in marketing one of its products, with Harper asking that part of the profits go to a charitable cause. There was a lot of talk that Harper should be picked for the All-Star team in his first year, but National League squad skipper Tony LaRussa demured, although Harper was named one of five finalists for the NL's Final Man vote and eventually was added to the National League squad as an injury replacement for Giancarlo Stanton. He was involved in another incident on July 15th, when Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen asked umpire Marty Foster to check his bat in the 1st inning, complaining that he had used too much pine tar. When he came to the plate with a new bat in the 4th, he pointed it at the Marlins bench, prompting Guillen to erupt in a tirade of shouts and call him unprofessional and disrespectful after the game. For his part, Harper simply shrugged off the incident. He had the first two-homer game of his career on August 29th against the Miami Marlins, helping the Nats snap a five-game losing streak, but also picked up his first career ejection when he threw his batting helmet after grounding into a double play in the 9th. "I shouldn't have done it, but I don't like hitting into double plays," he explained after the game. He hit his 20th homer of the year on September 26th, becoming only the second teenager, after Tony Conigliaro, to hit that many (they have since been joined by Juan Soto, who was Harper's teammate on the Nats when he accomplished the feat in 2018. He was named the NL's Rookie of the Month for September, the second time he had picked up that award, on the strength of a .330 batting average, .651 slugging percentage, 7 homers and 26 runs scored. He was voted the NL Rookie of the Year after the season, getting 16 first-place votes and 112 points while P Wade Miley of the Arizona Diamondbacks was second with 12 votes and 105 points. He became the second-youngest NL Rookie of the Year ever, trailing Dwight Gooden. In the 2012 postseason, he went 3 for 23 with a double, triple, homer and eight whiffs. The home run made him the second-youngest player to go deep in a postseason (after Andruw Jones), breaking Manny Machado's mark set two days prior. He would be the last teenager to hit a major league homer until teammate Juan Soto did so in his second career at-bat on May 21, 2018.

Harper added to his growing legend on Opening Day on April 1, 2013, as he homered in his first two at-bats of the season against the Miami Marlins' Ricky Nolasco, accounting for the only two runs of the game as Washington won, 2-0. He became the youngest player to homer twice on Opening Day, breaking Don Money's 44-year-old mark (Money was 21 years, 305 days old; Harper 20 years, 167 days). He went on to have a terrific opening month, during which he hit .344 with 9 homers and 18 RBI, finishing just behind the Atlanta Braves' Justin Upton for National League Player of the Month honors. His all-out style of play got him in trouble a few times in the early going, including on May 13th when he ran into the wall at fuill speed at Dodger Stadium while trying to catch a fly ball off the bat of A.J. Ellis of the Los Angeles Dodgers; he was knocked to the ground and had to be removed from the game, but suffered only minor injuries, or so it seemed at the time. Those injuries proved to be lingering, especially the bruise on Harper's knee, and he finally went on the disabled list on June 1st, after having missed plenty of playing time in the previous 20 days. He admitted at that point that he should have taken some rest immediately to be fully healed, rather than try as he did to come back as quickly as possible and not giving himself a proper chance to get over the injuries. Given how slowly the knee was healing, he went to see Dr. James Andrews a few days later to see what could be done. Finally, he missed over a month, coming back on July 1st. In typical fashion, he stole the headlines that day when he homered off Yovani Gallardo of the Milwaukee Brewers in a 10-5 win. A few days later, he was elected by the fans to start the 2013 All-Star Game. He was also named to represent the NL in the Home Run Derby, and hitting against his father Ron with his brother Bryan watching, he made it all the way to the final round before losing to Yoenis Cespedes. That said, the campaign was generally disappointing for Harper, as he was less than 100% following the knee injury and played the second half knowing he was likely to undergo surgery in the off-season. The Nationals were out of contention and in late August, manager Davey Johnson criticized his young star for taking things too softly, after he failed to run out a ground ball on August 30th. He finished the season at .274/.368/.486, all three numbers slightly up from his rookie season, although the many injuries led to a fall in his counting stats and to the impression that he had regressed in his sophomore season. He still managed 20 homers and 58 RBIs in 118 games.

Harper ran into more injury problems in early 2014, when he jammed his thumb against the bag diving head-first into third base while running out a triple on April 25th. The injury required surgery, putting him out until July. He was hitting .289 in 22 games at the time. On June 28th, he hit three homers and drove in five runs in a rehabilitation game with Harrisburg, showing he was ready to return to Washington, and indeed he was back in the Nats' line-up on June 30th. However, he struggled after his return to the line-up, hitting barely above .200 his first month back, leading to speculation that he would be sent to the minors. Manager Matt Williams, some of whose comments had fed the rumors, felt it necessary to speak publicly on the issue on August 6th, saying a demotion was not in the cards. The very next day, Harper lifted a two-run walk-off homer over the left-field fence in the 13th inning against the New York Mets' Carlos Torres to give Washington a 5-3 win. He finished the season at .273 in 100 games, with 13 homers and 32 RBIs, disappointing stats as many had been expecting a break-out season from the talented young player. He was just about the only Nationals player to do well in the postseason, however, going 5 for 17 with a double and three homers, scoring and and driving in 4 runs, as the Nats were eliminated by the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS.

Harper taking batting practice, July 4, 2015

Harper set a franchise record with five homers in two games in May of 2015. On May 6th, he went deep three times and drove in 5 runs in his first career three-homer game in leading Washington to a 7-5 win over the Miami Marlins, then on May 8th he homered twice more in a 9-2 win over the Atlanta Braves. Teams were starting to fear him and pitch around him, as he was leading the National League in walks at that point, after putting up pedestrian totals in his first three seasons. No one had hit so many homers in two games in the history of the Nationals or of their predecessors, the Montreal Expos; he was also the youngest player to have ever accomplished the rare feat. He was not done, however, as on May 9th, he hit a walk-off homer off the Braves' Cody Martin, a two-run shot that gave the Nats an 8-6 win. He was the first player in a decade to hit 6 homers in three games, the last having been Hee-Seop Choi in 2005. But while he was busy re-writing the record books and pushing the Nationals into first place in the NL East - which happened on May 19th - he was also up to some of his old and less pleasant tricks, as he was ejected from a game twice in a span of eight days for arguing balls and strikes with an umpire, on the 13th and the 21st; both times, he took manager Matt Williams down with him, as he unsuccessfully tried to protect his star player. Not surprisingly, he was named the NL Player of the Month for May, on the basis of a batting line of .360/.495/.884, 13 homers and 28 RBIs. Just like it looked like there was no slowing him down, he had to leave a game against the Tampa Bay Rays on June 18th in the 6th inning because of a hamstring injury, although initial reports were that it was a mild one. He was back in the line-up two days later, on June 20th, in time to hit his 23rd homer of the season in support of Max Scherzer's no-hitter over the Pittsburgh Pirates. he was the leading vote-getter for the NL in the 2015 All-Star Game, his total of 13,8 million votes shattering the previous league record of 7,6 million achieved by Buster Posey three years earlier. On September 3rd, he did something exceedingly rare when he scored 4 runs in a 15-1 win over the Atlanta Braves in spite of not having an at-bat in the game; he walked in all four of his plate appearances and came around to score each time. Only three other players - all Hall of Famers had done this previously: Larry Doby in 1951; Joe Morgan in 1973 and Rickey Henderson in 1989. He hit his 40th homer of the year on September 16th, becoming the seventh player to reach the mark before turning 23. He finished with 42 homers, tied with Nolan Arenado for the NL lead, and second to Dee Gordon of the Miami Marlins in the batting race, .333 to .330. He won a Silver Slugger Award and was a unanimous choice as the NL MVP.

On April 14, 2016, Harper hit the 100th home run of his career against Julio Teheran of the Braves; it was also the first grand slam of his career and it gave the Nats a 6-2 win. At 23 years and 181 days, Harper became the 8th youngest player in history to hit 100 homers. he set another mark a few days later, on April 17th, when he hit a home run at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park for the sixth straight game dating back to the previous season. He matched a record held by Ernie Banks. He only had to wait until April 19th to hit his second grand slam, as it came off Chris Narveson of the Miami Marlins as part of a seven-run inning in which the Nationals hit a team-record four homers. The big inning accounted for all of the scoring in a 7-0 win. On April 21st, he hit his sixth homer in eight games, against Tom Koehler of the Marlins in a 5-1 loss. At that early point of the season, he already had 8 homers but had struck out only 6 times, something unseen since the days of Ted Kluszewski and Joe DiMaggio; he had also out-homered three different teams by himself. On April 24th, given a rare day off, he still managed a feat by hitting the first pinch homer of his career; it came in the bottom of the 9th against closer Kevin Jepsen of the Minnesota Twins and tied the game at 4-all, allowing the Nats to eventually come out on top in 16 innings in the longest regular-season game in team history at 5 hours and 56 minutes. He as named the National League's Player of the Month for April after hitting .286 with 9 homers and 24 RBIs. As a result, when he went to Wrigley Field for a series in early May, the Chicago Cubs gave him the full "Barry Bonds" treatment: i.e. walking him at every opportunity. His last 12 plate appearances consisted of 10 walks (4 intentional), a hit-by-pitch, and a sacrifice fly the one time he got to swing the bat. On May 8th, he tied a major league record with 6 walks (and a HBP) in a 13-inning, 4-3 loss as the Nats were swept; his seven plate appearances without being charged with an official at-bat were also a record. On May 9th, however, he was ejected from the game by umpire Brian Knight for arguing from the dugout in the 9th inning; but before he could leave the premises, Clint Robinson hit a walk-off homer and Harper joined in the on-field celebration, taking time to hurl an expletive at Knight, a trespass which earned him a further one-game suspension, which he served a few days later. Overall his season was a disappointment, as he hit only .243 with 24 homers and 86 RBIs. Teams pitched around him frequently, resulting in 108 walks, including a league-leading 20 intentional passes. Still, Washington won its division handily, but in the postseason, he was again not a major factor, going 4 for 17 (.235) with only one extra-base hit - a double - as the Nats once again exited in the first round, losing the NLDS in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. After the season, he married his long-time girlfriend Kayla Varner at the Mormon Temple in San Diego, CA; the two had been dating since high school.

Harper was back being himself at the start of the 2017 season. On April 16th, he was the hero of his team's 6-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies as he hit a two-run homer off Jerad Eickhoff in the 3rd, then with his team trailing 4-3 in the 9th, hit a three-run walk-off blast against Joaquin Benoit, giving him 5 RBIs on the day. On April 30th, he scored 4 runs in a 23-5 drubbing of the New York Mets, giving 32 for the month. It was a new major league record for April, eclipsing the 29 scored by Larry Walker in April of 1997. He had an on-base percentage of .510 for the month. On May 13th, he signed a one-year contract extension covering the 2018 season worth $21.6 million. It was the largest contract ever for a player eligible for salary arbitration, but it did not delay his upcoming free agency. He celebrated by hitting a walk-off homer with two outs in the 9th off Edubray Ramos of the Philadelphia Phillies to give Washington a 6-4 win. On May 29th, his temper flared up when he was hit in the hip by a 98 mph fastball from Hunter Strickland of the Giants, rushing the mound and causing a bench-clearing brawl. The throw was in apparent retaliation from an incident dating back to the 2014 NLDS, when Harper had homered twice off Strickland and the two had exchanged words following the second of these. They had not faced one another since, hence the belated retaliation, it seems. He was handed a four-game suspension the next day, while Strickland was suspended for six games. Harper's suspension was reduced by one game following an appeal. He started the month of July 25 for 51 after going 4-for-4 with a homer against the Los Angeles Angels on July 18th. During that month, he had also been voted the starting right fielder for the National League in the 2017 All-Star Game. On July 26th, he extended his hitting streak to a personal-best 18 games, but was then ejected by umpire Chris Segal after throwing a tamper tantrum following a strikeout in the 8th inning. The streak reached 19 games before ending on July 29th. On August 12th, however, he hyper-extended his left knee when he slipped on a wet first base in the 1st inning of a game against the San Francisco Giants. While he would need to miss playing time, the early fears that his season was over seemed to be exaggerated, with a return some time in September being posited. For his part, Harper criticized the wet and rainy conditions under which the game in which he was injured had been played (the game had started after a three-hour delay and under less than optimal conditions), blaming the decision to play the game in spite of these for his injury. On August 30th, however, manager Dusty Baker stated that Harper was "a long way from running," pouring cold water on the assumption that he would be able to return for the postseason. He did return on September 26th, going 0-for-2 with a walk after starting in right field against the Phillies. He had missed 42 games and was removed in the bottom of the 5th, as the Nats had no reason to over-exert him as they were just tuning up for the postseason by that point, having clinched a division title in Harper's absence.

In 2018, he won the Home Run Derby in front of his hometown fans the day before the 2018 All-Star Game, for which he was voted a starter. Hitting the pitches of his father, he defeated Kyle Schwarber in the final round thanks to a tremendous late burst in which he homered on 9 consecutive pitches in a span of 47 seconds, then hit his 19th and decisive homer in the bonus round. That said, both his season and the Nationals's was not up to expectations, leading to serious speculation at the trading deadline that he would be dealt, given he was in the last year of his contract and bent on testing the free agent waters after the season. A rumored deal with the Cleveland Indians fell through at the last minute, then on August 21st, he was placed on waivers when the Nats decided to throw in the towel on the season. He was claimed by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the Nationals pulled him back as L.A. was willing to take on the remainder of his contract but not offer any players in return. He thus finished the season with the Nats, playing 159 games and hitting .249 with 34 homers and 100 RBIs. It was his first time breaking the 100 RBI mark and his home run total was his second highest to that point. He also led the National League with 130 walks, a personal best, giving a very solid OBP of .393. So, while his low batting average - and Washington's disappointing performance as a team - gave the impression that he had had a poor season, he was actually quite solid, with an OPS+ of 133. As anticipated, he became a free agent after the season.

Harper's free agency did not give rise to the sort of headline-hogging feeding frenzy that once been common in the 1980s, and the story was that baseball was somehow broken because teams were refraining from making over-the-top bids on top-notch players who were available (fellow free agent Manny Machado also found the market tighter that his agent had hoped). So it took until spring training was already under way for the two marquee players to find new teams, but in the end, both did so by late February, and for record amounts. In Harper's case, it was the Philadelphia Phillies who made the best offer, with a contract for 13 years and $330 million, the deal being made official on March 2, 2019 after having been leaked a couple of days earlier. The Phils asked him to give up his number 34, which they planned to retire in honor of newly-inducted Hall of Famer Roy Halladay, and offered him number 3 instead. He quickly set a first record for the Phils, as his new jersey was the fastest-selling for any athlete in its first 24 hours after being launched. Ticket sales in Philly had also taken off following his contract announcement. In his first Grapefruit League game, against the Toronto Blue Jays on March 9th, he faced a bespoke defensive shift, with the Jays using a fourth outfielder during his at-bats; he did not have a chance to test the alignment, as he walked in his only two plate appearances, but it left observers wondering whether this would be the start of a trend. In his second regular season game, on March 30th, he launched his first homer as a member of the Phillies and it was a monster one, into the upper deck at Citizens Bank Park. The shot off Jesse Biddle of the Braves traveled some 465 feet and was estimated to have been the second-longest ever hit at the park. On April 2nd, he returned to Washington for the first time since signing his contract, and while the Nationals were fair-minded, showing a video tribute to him from former teammates on the scoreboard, the local fans had other ideas. They booed him mercilessly during the tribute, and during each of his at-bats. While he struck out against Max Scherzer his first two times up, he then put on a show, with a double in the 5th, a run-scoring single in the 6th, and a 458-foot two-run homer off Jeremy Hellickson in the 8th, leading the Phils to an 8-2 win. On July 3rd, he had two milestones in the same at-bat as his 1000th career hit was also his 200th homer; it came against near-namesake Bryse Wilson of the Atlanta Braves. The highlight of his season probably came on August 15th, when he blasted a walk-off grand slam in the 9th inning off Derek Holland to give the Phils a 7-5 win over the Chicago Cubs. He finished the year at .260 with 35 homes and 114 RBIs, good for an OPS+ of 125. These were good numbers - but also nowhere near those posted in his MVP season.

He had a good season that went pretty much under the radar during the Coronavirus-shortened 2020 season. He appeared in 58 of the Phillies' 60 games, batting .268 with 13 homers and 33 RBIs. He led the National League with 49 walks and his OPS+ was 158, but since the Phillies missed the postseason and there was no All-Star Game, he did not receive much coverage. He changed that in 2021 with a monster season for an underperforming Phillies team: he led the NL with 42 doubles, a .615 slugging percentage, an OPS of 1.044 and an OPS+ of 180. He batted .309 with 35 homers and 101 runs scored, but only drove in just 84 runs as he came up to bat with fewer runners on base than anyone in the league, and was often pitched around in dangerous situations, drawing 100 walks, which says more about other players in the Phils tahn about him. He won his second MVP Award in spite of his team being a non-factor all season, in addition to his second Silver Slugger Award. He really turned it on during the sevcond half, when he batted .338 and his 20 of his long balls, which explains why he did not make the All-Star team: his first half numbers were good, but not outstanding enough to get him into a crowded outfield.

He got off to a great start in 2022 for a Phillies team that was again struggling, but that was in spite of not being able to play the field. He was the starting rightfielder for the first two weeks of the season, but a shoulder injury that prevented him from throwing properly forced a move to DH after April 16th. Luckily for him Major League Baseball had adopted the universal DH that season, meaning he could still be in the starting line-up, but it also created a handicap for his team as they had to start two sub-par defensive outfielders, Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, at the outfield corners in most games. After 34 games, he was batting .305 with 9 homers and 27 RBIs and was leading the National League in runs scored, doubles, homers, total bases and slugging percentage. On June 5th, he hit a game-tying grand slam off Raisel Iglesias of the Los Angeles Angels in the 8th inning, which was followed by a three-run walk-off blast by rookie teammate Bryson Stott in the 9th to give Philly its third straight win since replacing manager Joe Girardi by bench coach Rob Thomson. On June 25th, he was hit by a fastball thrown by Blake Snell of the San Diego Padres, breaking his thumb. He was hitting .318 with 15 homers and 48 RBIs in 64 games. He was expected to miss an extended period as a result of the injury and indeed, he returned to the line-up on August 26th. He hit a two-run bases loaded single in his first at-bat to open the scoring in a 7-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. He finished the season at .286 in 99 games, with 18 homers and 65 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 145. He had an excellent postseason as well, batting .500 in the Phillies upset win over the Atlanta Braves in the Division Series, and being named the MVP of the NLCS when the Phillies defeated the San Diego Padres to reach the World Series. He slowed down at that stage, going 4 for 20 as the Phils lost the Fall Classic to the Houston Astros. In all, he connected for 6 homers and 7 doubles in 17 postseason games. After the season, it was announced that he would undergo surgery on his elbow to repair the ligament tear, and that he might miss the start of the following season as a result.

He was able to return from the surgery on May 2, 2023, having only missed a month, and without a rehabilitation assignment in the minors. He practiced at first base while recovering, the position being available due to a season-ending injury suffered by Rhys Hoskins during spring training. However, he was used exclusively at DH until the All-Star break, finally making his defensive debut at first base on July 21st. He was still getting on base, batting .294 with an OBP of .388 through his first 64 games, but his power had not yet come back, as he had only hit four homers by that point. On August 30th, he hit career homer #300, off Matt Moore of the Los Angeles Angels in a 10-8 loss. By then, his powered had finally recovered, as it was his third straight game with a long ball, and he was up to 15 for the season. He finished the season at .293 in 126 games, with 21 homers and 72 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 146. He was named the winner of the Silver Slugger Award at DH, his third such award, where he played the majority of his games; he also finished 12th in the MVP vote. He had another good postseason, with 12 hits and 5 homers in 42 at-bats as the Phillies made it back to the NLCS, where they were defeated by the Arizona Diamondbacks. If there had been such a thing as a Division Series MVP Award, he would have won it, as he obliterated the Atlanta Braves' pitching in the Division Series to the tune of a .462 average and 1.154 slugging percentage.

In 2024, he was the starter at first base from the get-go and on April 2nd became the first player in the majors that season to have a three-homer game, doing so in a 9-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds on the road at Great American Ballpark. He capped his night with a grand slam off Brent Suter in the 7th. He had started the year 0 for 11, and his second career three-homer game also included the 1,000th run scored of his career. He was the NL Player of the Month in May, his third time winning the Award, as he put up an OPS of .990 with 7 homers and 24 RBIs. Not coincidentally, the Phillies had the best record in the league at the end of the month. He repeated as the winner of that particular award in June when he hit .374 with 7 homers and an OPS of 1.166. However, he went on the injured list on June 28th with a hamstring strain, just as he was named the starting 1B at the 2024 All-Star Game as the top vote-getter in the NL.

Harper's brother Bryan Harper has been drafted three times, the latest by the Nationals in the 2011 amateur draft. Bryce married his long-time girlfriend Kayla Varner in December 2016; the couple had originally planned to wed in January 2015, but they had a falling out before getting back together. Their first son, Krew Aron Harper, was born on August 22, 2019.

Notable Achievements[edit]

  • 2012 NL Rookie of the Year Award
  • 2012 Topps All-Star Rookie Team
  • 8-time NL All-Star (2012, 2013, 2015-2018, 2022 & 2024)
  • 2-time NL MVP (2015 & 2021)
  • 2022 NLCS MVP
  • 4-time NL Silver Slugger Award Winner (2015/OF, 2021/OF, 2023/DH & 2024/1B)
  • NL On-Base Percentage Leader (2015)
  • 2-time NL Slugging Percentage Leader (2015 & 2021)
  • 2-time NL OPS Leader (2015 & 2021)
  • NL Runs Scored Leader (2015)
  • NL Doubles Leader (2021)
  • NL Home Runs Leader (2015)
  • 2-time NL Bases on Balls Leader (2018 & 2020)
  • 20-Home Run Seasons: 10 (2012, 2013, 2015-2019, 2021, 2023 & 2024)
  • 30-Home Run Seasons: 5 (2015, 2018, 2019, 2021 & 2024)
  • 40-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2015)
  • 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 3 (2015, 2018 & 2021)
  • 100 RBI Seasons: 2 (2018 & 2019)


NL Rookie of the Year
2011 2012 2013
Craig Kimbrel Bryce Harper Jose Fernandez
NL MVP
2014 2015 2016
Clayton Kershaw Bryce Harper Kris Bryant
2020 2021 2022
Freddie Freeman Bryce Harper Paul Goldschmidt

Further Reading[edit]

  • Ted Berg: "Once 'Baseball's Chosen One,' Bryce Harper is hitting like just that", "For the Win", USA Today, July 13, 2015. [1]
  • Paul Casella: "Bryce's heroics earn him 2022 NLCS MVP Award: Phillies' star delivers 3 game-winning knocks: 'There's no moment that's too big for him'", mlb.com, October 23, 2022. [2]
  • Anthony Castrovince: "A 2-way and a 2-time MVP in Ohtani, Bryce", mlb.com, November 18, 2021. [3]
  • Jamal Collier: "Harper puts 2016 struggles in rearview mirror: Slugger says he knows cause of down season, but is focused on job at hand", mlb.com, February 18, 2017. [4]
  • Thomas Harrigan: "Bryce Harper ... better than ever?", mlb.com, April 28, 2021. [5]
  • Thomas Harrigan: "Why Harper looks poised to fuel another deep Phils playoff run", mlb.com, August 29, 2023. [6]
  • Richard Justice: "Harper wired for greatness", mlb.com, May 9, 2015. [7]
  • Gabe Lacques: "Injured Bryce Harper 'really upset' about rainy conditions Saturday", USA Today Sports, August 13, 2017. [8]
  • Doug Miller: "15 for '15: Harper, Scherzer have storybook seasons", mlb.com, December 27, 2015. [9]
  • Bob Nightengale: "Nationals, Bryce Harper talk contract, but 'unique talent' figures to test market", USA Today Sports, February 23, 2016. [10]
  • Bob Nightengale: "At 24, Bryce Harper won't fixate on future: 'I want to live for now'", USA Today Sports, March 2, 2017. [11]
  • Bob Nightengale: "Speculation on Bryce Harper's future begins now -- with or without his help", USA Today Sports, February 19, 2018. [12]
  • Bob Nightengale: "Phillies owner John Middleton on Bryce Harper: 'Does this look like stupid money?'", USA Today, March 2, 2019. [13]
  • Bob Nightengale: "Bryce Harper has no regrets entering Year 2 with Phillies: 'Just so happy to be here'", USA Today, February 20, 2020. [14]
  • Jorge L. Ortiz: "Nationals' Bryce Harper unanimous choice for NL MVP", USA Today Sports, November 19, 2015. [15]
  • Doug Padilla: "'One of a kind': Harper unstoppable in LA: Slugger on offensive tear in venue where he debuted a decade ago", mlb.com, May 15, 2022. [16]
  • Mike Petriello: "Should the Nationals consider trading Harper?", mlb.com, July 5, 2018. [17]
  • Mike Petriello: "Suddenly, this star has a path to MVP. How?", mlb.com, August 5, 2021. [18]
  • Joe Posnanski: "This will be Bryce Harper's career season", mlb.com, March 18, 2018. [19]
  • Tracy Ringolsby: "Harper wants to be best, but also play for best", mlb.com, August 16, 2016. [20]
  • Todd Zolecki: "Harper, Phils agree to 13-year deal", mlb.com, March 1, 2019. [21]
  • Todd Zolecki: "Emotional Harper wins 2nd NL MVP Award", mlb.com, November 18, 2021. [22]
  • Todd Zolecki: "Harper delivering everything Phils expected when they signed him: Magical postseason culminating in 1st World Series appearance", mlb.com, October 25, 2022. [23]
  • Todd Zolecki: "Bryce has elbow surgery, should return as DH by All-Star break", mlb.com, November 23, 2022. [24]
  • Todd Zolecki: "Harper returns tonight, 160 days after Tommy John surgery", mlb.com, May 2, 2023. [25]
  • Todd Zolecki: "Bryce Harper proves he's a walking baseball encyclopedia", mlb.com, August 23, 2023. [26]
  • Todd Zolecki: "What slump? Harper caps 3-homer night with a grand slam", mlb.com, April 3, 2024. [27]

Related Sites[edit]

Retrieved from "https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=Bryce_Harper&oldid=1396686"