PHILADELPHIA — John Middleton wanted to be the one to tell Bryce Harper. So, shortly after lunchtime in Philadelphia on the first Monday in December, once Trea Turner had accepted the Phillies’ $300 million offer, the owner reached for his phone and called the star slugger at home in Las Vegas.
“Hey,” Middleton said, “we got your friend.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me right now,” Harper replied.
It isn’t that Harper was surprised. Hardly. The Phillies needed a middle infielder, and Turner is the best all-around shortstop in baseball — a two-time All-Star, former batting champion, and World Series winner in Washington in 2019. The fit was obvious. Anyone could see that.
Still, it seemed almost too perfect. Because Harper and Turner played together for four years with the Nationals. They’re friends. Their wives are friends. At the All-Star Game last year, Turner said Harper was “leading [the Phillies] in the right direction” — and that was before he steered them straight into the World Series with the biggest home run in 141 years of baseball in Philadelphia. In August, Harper appeared on a Phillies telecast and described Turner thusly: “He’s my favorite player in the league. It’s not even close.”
Indeed, if a pickup baseball game broke out at FDR Park and Harper was one of the captains, his first pick would be Turner.
Unless it was J.T. Realmuto.
Or Nick Castellanos.
Maybe Kyle Schwarber?
Here’s the thing about Harper: He didn’t merely sign a 13-year, $330 million, face-of-the-franchise contract in February 2019. He planted a flag in the turf at Citizens Bank Park, not exactly a hot MLB destination back then. The Phillies hadn’t been to the playoffs — or even had a winning season — since 2011. They were two years removed from 96 losses. The farm system was dry, the rebuilding incomplete.
But Harper saw potential. And he wasn’t shy about lobbying Middleton and the front office, as few players in few organizations could, in an attempt to acquire players around the league whom he most admires.
Four years later, the Phillies roster is filled with FOBs — Friends of Bryce. From re-signing Realmuto before the 2021 season and the dual free-agent additions of Schwarber and Castellanos last year, to 2019 first-round draft pick Bryson Stott and now Turner — heck, even hitting coach Kevin Long, who worked with Harper in Washington — the 2023 Phillies are undeniably “Bryce’s Bunch,” apropos given Harper will rely on his pals to get off to a good start while his reconstructed elbow ligament continues to heal.
“It’s good and bad at the same time, right?” Harper said with a chuckle the other day before another tedious spring training workout in his recovery from Tommy John elbow surgery. “I don’t think they’re just doing it because I’m saying, ‘Hey, we should go get this guy.’ I think they know how good these players are and how much they can help us.”
What’s bad about it, then?
“People might look at it as, if we don’t win, ‘Hey, what the heck, Bryce?’ Harper said, laughing again.
Every general manager in baseball can relate to that.
‘This was the plan’
Let’s be clear: It didn’t take Harper’s endorsement for team officials to recognize the importance of bringing back Realmuto. Or to decide to finally go over the luxury-tax threshold for Castellanos. Or to chase Turner. And the Phillies didn’t make those moves because Harper pushed for it.
Middleton pays Harper to knock the ball out of the park. He gave future Hall of Fame president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski a four-year, $20 million contract, plus a three-year extension that runs through 2027, to do the same in the roster-building realm.
But Harper does have the ear of Middleton, in particular. They have what the owner describes as “open conversations” about all manner of Phillies business. After the 2019 season, for instance, Middleton sought input from Harper, among other players, before deciding to fire manager Gabe Kapler.
And Harper did structure his contract to enable the Phillies to maintain payroll flexibility. Baseball’s luxury tax is calculated by totaling the average annual value of each contract. When Harper agreed to stretch his deal to 13 years, the AAV became $25.38 million rather than, say, $33 million if he had signed for 10 years.
In turn, Middleton promised Harper that the Phillies would spend the surplus money to improve the team around him.
“Ask Bryce what I was telling him in February 2019 and whether I lived up to my word,” Middleton said. “I think he’d say absolutely — and maybe beyond.”
Sometimes Harper will go to Middleton with an opinion about a free agent or trade candidate. Other times, Middleton will ask Harper to weigh in. Middleton appreciates the give and take, while also acknowledging that few players have the sway that Harper enjoys.
“He makes his views known, and that’s good,” Middleton said. “Because what you can really get from players is what’s the character of the person. What’s he like in the clubhouse, in the dugout? How does he handle the down moments when he strikes out with the bases loaded? He doesn’t just talk to me. He talks to Dave a lot. He talks to [manager] Rob [Thomson]. That’s good.”
Harper was never more vocal than in 2020, when he started the “Sign J.T.” campaign.
As baseball returned from the pandemic and the Phillies opened a summer training camp, Harper wore a Realmuto T-shirt in batting practice. He said it would be “terrible and sad” if they lost the All-Star catcher to free agency. And after Realmuto homered in an intrasquad scrimmage, Harper met him at home plate and yelled “Sign him,” the echo in fan-less Citizens Bank Park undoubtedly reaching then-general manager Matt Klentak’s suite.
The Phillies did re-sign Realmuto to a five-year, $115.5 million contract, the highest average annual value ever for a catcher. But the sides didn’t reach an agreement until January 2021, after Realmuto tested free agency, Klentak got demoted, and Dombrowski was hired.
“J.T. was just such an easy one for the organization because he’s so good back there,” Harper said. “I think he continues to get better.”
The Phillies targeted Schwarber before the owners’ lockout last year because they liked his power as both a home-run hitter and a clubhouse leader. And when the stoppage ended and the hunt for free-agent sluggers resumed, Harper said it would “definitely be a downer” if the Phillies didn’t sign at least one middle-of-the-order bopper.
How about two? A few days after signing Schwarber to a four-year, $79 million contract, the Phillies agreed to a five-year, $100 million deal with Castellanos that took the payroll over the luxury-tax threshold for the first time in franchise history.
“This was the plan,” said Stott, the second-year second baseman who grew up with Harper in Las Vegas. “He said he wanted to take that lower [AAV] so they could get guys around him. Him just manifesting that and putting that out there in the world and it actually coming true, he does that a lot. It’s pretty cool to see.”
‘Something I’ve always dreamed of’
Harper doesn’t always get what he wants.
A few days after signing with the Phillies, Harper did an interview with WIP-FM, the team’s flagship radio station, in which he vowed to eventually recruit Mike Trout to play with him. Trout, a South Jersey native and ardent Eagles fan and season-ticket holder, was due to become a free agent in 2020.
The Angels, not amused by Harper’s ambition, signed Trout to a 12-year, $426.5 million contract extension a few weeks later.
Oh well.
And then there were Harper’s comments on Twitch in 2020 that former top pitching prospect Spencer Howard should be in the Phillies rotation to begin the season. Howard fizzled, got traded to the Texas Rangers at the deadline in 2021 for Kyle Gibson, and has bounced back and forth between the majors and triple A.
Castellanos struggled to get comfortable in his first season in Philadelphia and posted the lowest on-base-plus-slugging (.694) in his career. This year may serve as a referendum on his contract.
But the rest of “Bryce’s Bunch” has produced. The Phillies returned to the postseason last year for the first time since 2011, and Citizens Bank Park became a rollicking destination again.
Not only for fans, either. Turner walked away from more money from the San Diego Padres — $42 million more, to be exact — and chose an 11-year, $300 million contract with the Phillies, where he and Harper will move into baseball middle age together.
“He’s earned the right to talk to John and the front office and put his opinion in and vouch for some guys,” Turner said. “And then for those guys to ultimately come here and play well and for it to turn into a winning organization, it’s why we are where we’re at. To see it kind of come to fruition is pretty cool. It says a lot about Bryce.”
It’s more or less everything that Harper imagined when he agreed to come play for Middleton.
“It’s just cool to see guys picking the Phillies again,” Harper said. “Some guys are scared to play in Philadelphia. That’s a big thing. People don’t always like playing in Philadelphia because of the fan base and how tough it is, but we all embrace it. We love it.
“When I set out to play here and signed here, that was always the ultimate goal, to get all of the best players you could and to get into an organization that was committed to winning. It’s something that I’ve always dreamed of.”
