Phillies

Yankees Reporter Says He Wouldn’t Be Shocked If Bryce Harper Was Traded This Offseason

By Kyle Pagan

Published: Oct 22nd, 2025 · 10:52 AM EDT

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Joel Sherman was on his Yankees podcast yapping about how he wouldn’t be surprised if Bryce Harper got traded (skip to 34:21):

Wtf does a New York Post MLB reporter and supposed MLB Network Baseball Insider know about the inner workings of the Phillies? Nothing. He claims he’s talking to executives all the time. Congrats there, Sherminator. If you go back and look at this guy’s other episodes and his Twitter timeline it’s 90% Yankees. Worry about what’s going on in your own house before you sneak a peek in ours. This guy must be thinking about the glory days with George Steinbrenner. Too bad George is dead and his son has alligator arms when the bill comes. This ain’t your daddy’s Yankees anymore.

I’d be shocked if Harper was traded especially after Scott Boras’ comments yesterday, via the Stories with Street CRed Substack:

“I don’t think Dave (Dombrowski) or John (Middleton) or anybody is contemplating Bryce Harper not being a Philadelphia Phillie for the rest of his career,” super agent Scott Boras, who represents Harper, said in a phone interview. “Remember, there’s only ten (10) qualified hitters that had a .355 OBP (On-Base Percentage) and .485 SLG (Slugging Percentage) this year: Bryce, (Shohei) Ohtani, (Kyle) Schwarber, (Juan) Soto, (Cal) Raleigh, (Aaron) Judge, (José) Ramírez, (Freddie) Freeman, (George) Springer and (Ketel) Marte. If you want to talk about Harper’s minimums due to injury, there they are.

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“I agree that (Harper) missed time due to injury and that his volume was down, but other than that, Bryce Harper is performing at an elite level on a number of characteristics that we keep track of,” said Boras. “By comparing Harper to Harper, his WAR (Wins Above Replacement) in 2025 was as good or better than it was in the 2019, 2022, and 2023 seasons with Philadelphia. And better than his 2016 and 2018 seasons with Washington (Nationals). Granted, he missed time in ’22 and ’23, but his WAR is the same as those seasons, too.”

“When you look into expected baseball stats – Harper is pretty much on par with his career averages,” Boras added. “He’s surrounded by (Kyle) Tucker, (Fernando) Tatis (Jr.), (Bobby) Witt (Jr.), and (Rafael) Devers. His barrel rate, hard hit rate, exit velocity, are all in the top of MLB. His barrel rate is the same as Vladdy (Guerrero) Jr. and Witt Jr. His exit velocity is the same as Cal Raleigh’s and Julio Rodriguez’s.”

Boras had the chance to really turn up the heat on the Phillies organization and chose not to. He could’ve taken a shot at Dave Dombrowski or guys in the organization, but instead took the high road. I don’t think Dombrowski’s comments were all that bad either. I think everything he said was a fair observation, especially when a guy who doesn’t have any opt outs in his contract publicly talks about re-negotiating an extension. You want elite money, but you haven’t exactly played like an elite player the last couple of seasons. Harper also has a no trade clause, which makes it even tougher to move him. Ngl, this was perfect podcasting by Sherminator. Say you wouldn’t be 100% surprised to make a good headline for people to clip. So what’s the percentage of surprise you’d be? 99%? 75%? Have you even talked to people in the Phillies org or is this just a gut feeling? Who knows! That’s just a good ‘ol solid headline grab. I think Harper getting traded isn’t even in the top-10 of things I’m worried about this offseason.