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I’m Willing to Overlook Bryce Harper’s Base Running Considering that the Phillies Were Nothing Before He Chose to Play Here
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There was some hubbub about Bryce Harper recently, manufactured radio slop from 94 WIP and Spike Eskin, who called the Phillies 1st baseman a “selfish” player when Harper said this after hitting for the cycle:
“I’ll tell you what: I don’t really care what people think about my base running because that’s how I’ve always played,” Harper said. “I’ve done it since I was 7 years old. I don’t really play a different way when I know I can try to get to second base. I’ve made mistakes on the bases. I’m going to. Little kids are going to do the same thing. And I’ll preach to them that they just play the game hard. If they get thrown out at second or third, then so be it. If I don’t do that tonight, then I don’t have the opportunity to hit for a cycle.”
Harper’s base running is fair game. The aggression can bite him in the ass at times, but calling him selfish makes little sense when you recall that he’s the entire reason this Phillies era exists.
Chase sums it up pretty well here:
“The Phillies have become relevant, good again and fun again because of him.”
That is correct, because the Phillies didn’t have anything and weren’t going anywhere before Harper chose to play here in 2019. The Phils were 80-82 in 2018 and had just completed their sixth losing season in a row. They were managed by Gabe Kapler, who had Matt Klentak and Andy MacPhail above him. The starting rotation was comprised of Aaron Nola, Zach Eflin, Jake Arrieta, Vince Velasquez, and Nick Pivetta. Rhys Hoskins was the only everyday player with an OPS above .800 while we watched a Jorge Alfaro/Andrew Knapp catcher platoon and saw Cesar Hernandez and Carlos Santana go to the plate a combined 1,387 times. There wasn’t much to be excited about.
Enter Harper, which changed everything.
He was the catalyst for returning the Phillies to serious club status, with serious fans. Now the front office could justifiably spend big on free agents and make aggressive trades. Enter Zack Wheeler. Enter Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos. Brandon Marsh and Trea Turner later joined the homegrown group of Ranger Suarez, Bryson Stott, and Alec Bohm. Then you top it off with guys like Jose Alvarado, Cristopher Sanchez, and Jhoan Duran and here we are now.
This all started because Bryce Harper chose the Phillies in free agency. If he decided to go somewhere else, the Phillies might have never turned the corner. Those free agents don’t come here and the Phillies don’t go after guys like Wheeler and Realmuto because they don’t have a superstar to build around, or lure top talent here in the first place.
So say what you will about Bryce’s base running, but the reason the team turned a hard corner during this era is because of him. Without him, there’s nothing.
EDIT – I forgot that Realmuto and Segura signed like a month or two before Harper, but I think one could argue that the Phillies pursuit of Bryce made those pursuits feasible, you know what I mean?
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com