Once may be a coincidence, but if someone hints at something two times — actually, make that three — it’s probably not an accident.
Back in Spring Training, Bryce Harper sat down with The Athletic‘s Matt Gelb for a tremendous conversation about his iconic home run in Game 5 of the 2022 NLCS, which essentially sent the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series. In that chat, he dropped this nugget.
“I absolutely love playing for the Phillies,” Harper said. “I can’t explain to you how much I love it. And how much I enjoy it. I really can’t. I want to play here until I’m 45 years old, and I really believe that I can.”
In the aftermath of hitting his 300th career home run Wednesday, Harper struck a similar tone.
Meeting with the media postgame in the Phillies clubhouse, Harper talked about hitting 300 more home runs to go with the 300 he now has on his resume. So the natural follow-up is to ask Harper if 600 is always the number he’s had on his mind in terms of how many home runs he hopes to hit before his career concludes.
“I just try to hit as many homers as I can in a career, right? Whatever that may be,” Harper said.
But the 30-year-old’s answer didn’t stop there, perhaps intentionally.
“[I’m] just super grateful to play this game, and very fortunate to sign a long-term deal here … hopefully sign a couple more years as well, just to be able to play this great game in this great city. I love where I’m at on a personal level, and where the team is at as well. But, like I said, there’s bigger numbers in my head, but 300 is pretty good.”
It’s not as though Harper would have tried any less hard to homer on the team’s upcoming roadtrip if he hadn’t hit his 300th home run Wednesday. However, Harper expressed postgame how important it was for him to reach the milestone at Citizens Bank Park.
“Being able to do it at home, in front of these fans, there’s nothing like it,” Harper said glowingly.
And then for a second time Wednesday, he stated how he hopes to play for the Phillies beyond the 13 years he signed for in advance of the 2019 season.
“I’m very fortunate, very blessed to put this uniform on each day with the Phillies across my chest and so thankful that me and [managing partner] John [Middleton] were able to sit down after the 2018 season and get something done,” Harper continued. “Like I said, very fortunate to have a long-term deal, and play this game for a long time. Hopefully I’m able to do it for even longer than what my contract looks like right now. I love being a Phillie, plain and simple. It’s something I dreamed about.”
Right now, the focus for Harper and the Phillies is making a second consecutive deep run in October, with this one potentially ending with a parade down Broad Street. But it didn’t take a detective when listening to Harper postgame to conclude that he’s hopeful that the Phillies extend his contract beyond the 2031 season.
Perhaps that will come when his current deal concludes, assuming Harper is still playing at a high level. But he’s 30 years old right now. He won an NL MVP in 2021. He hit the home run that sent the Phillies to the World Series in 2022. And he’s coming off of a month where he just hit 10 home runs, looking superhuman during the most recent nine-game homestand. If there was ever a time for the Scott Boras client to start softly putting pressure on the Phillies to tack on a few years to his current deal, now would be it for Harper.
At least half of Harper’s seven seasons with the Washington Nationals were spent with the former No. 1 overall pick having to hear speculation about where he would sign when he became a free agent after the 2018 season. Would it be the New York Yankees? Would the Las Vegas native want to go back west and sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers? Ultimately, Harper signed with the Phillies for 13 years and $330 million, but even that came after he was a free agent for over 100 days. At the time that he signed with the Phillies, it was understandable for Harper to want to be done with free agency, perhaps forever. And so Boras didn’t fight for any opt-out clauses on his behalf.
In terms of not having to constantly answer questions about his future and being able to settle down in one city with his wife Kayla and — eventually — their two children, not including an opt-out made sense for Harper.
But man, if he had signed a deal that allowed him to opt out after five years — like Manny Machado did with the San Diego Padres the same offseason — he would have had the Phillies over a barrel.
Machado opened Spring Training this year in San Diego by stating that he planned to opt out of his contract after the 2023 season. Before the calendar flipped to March, he had agreed to a new contract that tied him to the Padres through the 2033 season. After initially signing a 10-year/$300 million deal to join the Padres days before the Phillies signed Harper, Machado will end up making $500 million over 15 seasons in San Diego.
Without an opt out of his own, Harper doesn’t have the same type of leverage with the Phillies. He’s essentially banking on them to just do what his camp likely believes is the right thing. He didn’t include an opt-out in his contract, and for the production he’s delivered in parts of five seasons with the Phillies, it’s laughable that Harper is currently 26th in average annual value among MLB players.
Would Middleton — who told Harper in the aftermath of the Phillies winning the 2022 NL Pennant that “I think I’ve underpaid you” — consider adding “a couple more years” onto Harper’s deal? That would tie Harper to the Phillies through the 2033 season, which will be his age-40 season. It would also be the final year of Trea Turner’s 11-year/$300 million deal. That would be a nice way to reward someone who will unquestionably go down as one of the greatest players in the history of your franchise.
Whether Harper would still be playing at a high enough level to justify the extension in 2032 or 2033 is another story. But that’s perhaps all the more reason for him to continue dropping hints now that he would like if the Phillies added a few years onto his current deal.
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