Phillies

Funny to See Rob Manfred Pick Bryce Harper for the All-Star Game After Harper Suggested the Commissioner Should Get the Fuck Out of the Phillies Clubhouse

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 6th, 2026 · 10:23 AM EDT

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Saw this and had a laugh:

Bryce Harper was the “legend pick” by Rob Manfred for this year’s All-Star Game.

The legend pick allows the Commissioner to add iconic, historically significant players to the All-Star Game roster.

Harper would have been the biggest snub in the game if Manfred didn’t make the…

— Jeff Kerr (@JeffKerrPHL) July 5, 2026

It was a little less than a year ago that Harper and Manfred got into that confrontation, with Bryce reportedly telling the commish to “get the fuck out of our clubhouse.”

Jeff Passan painted the picture at ESPN:

Quiet for the majority of the meeting, Harper, sitting in a chair and holding a bat, eventually grew frustrated and said if MLB were to propose a cap and hold firm to it, players “are not scared to lose 162 games,” sources from the meeting told ESPN. Harper stood up, walked toward the middle of the room, faced Manfred and said: “If you want to speak about that, you can get the f— out of our clubhouse.”

Manfred, sources said, responded that he was “not going to get the f— out of here,” saying it was important to talk about threats to MLB’s business and ways to grow the game.

Fast forward and Manfred adds Bryce to the ASG as one of his “legend” picks.

The other 1st basemen are Freddie Freeman, who won the fan vote, and Matt Olson, who won the player vote. In fact, Olson got more than 100 votes than Freeman from the player balloting, which is interesting. Harper was up against two popular players who represent two large fan bases, which is a tough spot to be in.

But the offensive numbers are pretty even:

There’s not much separating these guys in the field either. Freeman actually has 0 errors on 679 chances. Olson has been involved in 65 double plays and has a .991 fielding percentage. Bryce is right there with 603 put outs, 46 assists, three errors, and a .995 Fielding%. So you could really make a case for all three of these guys, and the nature of voting sometimes leaves off players that deserve it. We thought that might happen with Brandon Marsh, but Phillies fans took care of that.

It’s a little funky that Bryce got the nod via commissioner pick, but somewhat commendable, too, because Manfred could have left him off. Shout out to the commish. There will be some troll fans of other teams calling Harper a “pity” pick, but the numbers defeat that narrative.