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Ever since joining the Phillies, Bryce Harper has been one of the more polarizing players in baseball. When he’s on and healthy, there aren’t many better. But Harper’s inconsistency — particularly in October — drew some public criticism from Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.
Four months later, Harper remains confused about Dombrowski airing those concerns into the public.
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Back in October, Dombrowski said of Harper, “Can he rise to the next level again? I don’t really know that answer. He’s the one that will dictate that more than anything else. I don’t think he’s content with the year that he 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 10 players in baseball, and I don’t think it fit into that category.”
The Dodgers ended up beating the Phillies 3-1 in the NLDS, and Harper went just 3 for 15 in the series with no home runs and no RBI. Fast forward to this week, and Harper admitted he was perplexed by Dombrowski’s remarks.
Harper said:
“I don’t get motivated by that kind of stuff. For me, it was kind of wild the whole situation of that happening. I think the big thing for me was when we first met with this organization it was, ‘Hey, we’re always going to keep things in-house, and we expect you to do the same thing.’ So, when that didn’t happen, it kind of took me for a run a little bit, so I don’t know. It’s part of it, I guess. It was kind of a wild situation.”
Harper went on to admit that he didn’t have the year that he wanted. But given his contract, it makes sense for Harper to at least expect organizational support.
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Trea Turner also came to Harper’s defense on Monday.
We’ll have to see if those comments end up serving as motivation. That was probably Dombrowski’s intention, but it’s clear that Harper took exception with how that was handled.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Bryce Harper dumbfounded after Phillies exec said he’s no longer elite
