Bryce Harper isn’t using Dave Dombrowski’s assessment of his play last season as motivation for 2026, but the Phillies first baseman still thinks it’s “wild” that the team president came out last October with claims that the two-time MVP wasn’t “elite” last season.
“I’m not motivated by stuff like that. To me, the whole situation where that happened was kind of wild,” Harper told reporters at Phillies training camp in Clearwater. “I think the biggest thing for me was that when we first met with this organization, it was, ‘Hey, we’re always going to keep things internal, and we expect you to do the same,’ so when that didn’t happen, it took me a little bit, so I don’t know. It’s part of it, I guess. It was kind of a wild situation.”
Harper, who has six seasons left on a 13-year, $330 million contract, posted an .844 OPS last season — his lowest since 2016 — with 27 home runs and 75 RBIs in 580 at-bats.
Shortly after the eight-time All-Star also went 3-for-15 with zero RBIs in a four-game elimination at the hands of the Dodgers in the NL Division Series, Dombrowski described Harper’s 2025 performance as subpar.
“Can he rise to the next level again? I don’t really know that answer,” Dombrowski said. “He’s the one who’s going to dictate that more than anything. I don’t think he’s happy with the year he’s had.”
“Again, it wasn’t a bad year. But when I think of Bryce Harper, you think elite, you think of one of the top ten players in baseball, and I don’t think it fits into that category.”
Harper, who missed about a month last season due to a wrist injury, acknowledged Sunday that he “obviously didn’t have the year … or the postseason that I wanted.”
“My numbers weren’t where they needed to be,” he added. “I know that, and I don’t have to be motivated to be great in my career or anything else. So that’s just not a motivating factor for me. For Dave to come out and say those things, I still think it’s a little wild.”
The 33-year-old Harper has a .280 batting average with 363 home runs and a .905 OPS over 14 seasons in the MLB, seven of which were with the Nationals and the last seven with the Phillies.
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