This off-season, there were reasons to be critical of Bryce Harper.
First, he simply wasn’t as impactful on the field in 2025 as he had been in previous seasons. His .844 OPS was his lowest since 2016 and he failed to make an impact in the postseason for the first time in his career.
He never looked right. There was little emotion, little fire. He seemed to drift through the season as a spectator, not a leader.
Second, when Dave Dombrowski made his “elite” comments about Harper after the season, I felt
Harper’s decision to publicly dispute the comments, replete with his “Not Elite” T-shirt months after Dombrowski’s comment, showed a lack of situational awareness.
I was highly critical of Harper during that time.
So yes, I came into the 2026 season a little annoyed with the Phillies’ star first baseman, and I truly did wonder if the 33-year-old’s best days were behind him.
Those fears have been allayed.
Despite a brief two-week slump heading into last weekend’s series against the Mets, Harper had been having a more impactful season than last. And then, he went off on Saturday and Sunday against New York.
Harper finished Sunday night’s game a triple short of a cycle after hitting for the cycle on Saturday. The last player to finish one element short of a cycle the game after hitting for a cycle was teammate Trea Turner, when they were Nationals teammates in April 2017 (via OptaSTATS).
Harper’s weekend pushed him atop the leaderboard among first basemen in OPS (.897) entering Tuesday’s game against the Nationals. But his triple to cap the cycle on Saturday has people talking.
For those who didn’t see it, Harper’s three-bagger was essentially a double to the left-center field wall that he turned into a triple simply because he had decided he wasn’t going to stop running, no matter what.
When Harper stepped to the plate, it was an 11-1 game with two outs in the 5th inning. His hit into the gap made it a 13-1 game. In this instance, Harper’s decision to try for the triple, at the risk of getting thrown out at third to end the inning, was a no-brainer.
In a one-run game, it’s a stupid decision. In a 12-run game? Light your hair on fire, dude.
Harper was credited with a triple because he never stopped running, so the official scorer made the decision that he did not advance to third because of the throw home. Harper’s intention was to get his triple and, after doing so, erupted in the kind of emotional celebration we saw routinely from Bryce during the 2022 and ’23 playoffs, but haven’t seen much of since.
Some fans didn’t like it. They didn’t like that Harper celebrated his individual accomplishment with such vigor. But why?
The game had already been won. It was a cool moment. Triples are awesome. Cycles are rare. Harper had never gotten one. What’s the harm?
After the game, Harper was asked about his decision to try for the triple, and about his tendency to run the bases aggressive on the bases.
“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,” a vindicated Harper said. “I’ve done it since I was seven 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 to play the game hard, and if you get thrown out at second or third, then so be it.”
This answer, and Harper’s aggressive pursuit and celebration of his cycle, apparently rubbed some people the wrong way.
With a little over 12,000 votes cast online, 90% of the above respondents said “no.” I reckon that would be your answer, too. And the ratio on the tweet speaks to the silliness of the question itself.
I may be in the minority, but I think sports talk radio is fun. Most of the time, I think it adds to the enjoyment of following sports in Philadelphia. And if you think sports talk radio in Philly is “too much,” you weren’t around for the sports talk radio environment of the 1980s, ’90s and the early 2000s. It was a very, very rough scene.
Still, this question, and this take, was a misfire.
There was reason to criticize Harper last year and this previous off-season.
But now? After the monster weekend he had at Citizens Bank Park and the bounce-back season he’s having? You’re going there now?
Harper is playing terrific baseball. He’s a great teammate. I wholeheartedly agree that he sometimes says and does things that are worthy of criticism, but I also believe Harper would not have pushed for the triple on Saturday night if the game had been close. I absolutely do not believe Harper is a selfish player who is focused first on selfish goals and second on team goals.
To believe otherwise is to ignore his history with the Phillies.
As someone who was highly critical of Bryce during the off-season, I feel I can say this with some credibility.
Enough already. Leave the guy alone.
He’s playing great baseball.
He’s enjoying the game.
The team is feeding off him in a positive way.
And let’s not forget all the incredible moments he’s given the fanbase over the last seven years.
Criticize Harper when he deserves it. Let’s not go out of our way to make up things to criticize him for.
