Bryce Harper showed up to Citizens Bank Park on Monday with a new look. Gone were the shaggy locks. The Philadelphia Phillies first baseman, in the midst of a frustrating stretch of baseball, had buzzed his hair down into a much more streamlined look. The beard remained, although, that too looked a little more svelte.
It wasn't just a style choice, either. We don't know for sure that Harper chopped the locks to change his luck, but it wouldn't be surprising based on how things have been going for him lately.
Harper, a two-time NL MVP, has seen his fair share of struggles at the plate. Since the beginning of May, Harper has been almost a non-factor hitting primarily out of the three-hole. But his troubles really began when the Phillies travelled to New York for their forgettable series with the Mets on April 21.
Since the beginning of that series, Harper's slashing .189/.291/.324 with two home runs and eight RBIs in 86 plate appearances.
Bryce Harper's new haircut didn't offer immediate relief amid slump
Unfortunately, the new haircut didn't help him in the series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals. After he went 0-for-3 with a walk in the Phillies' 3-2 loss, he's batting just .232/.351/.419 on the season. As a career .280 hitter with a career .907 OPS, that's certainly not a very Harper-esque line.
He's 3-for-19 with a pair of walks over his last five games. All three knocks came on Saturday facing the Cleveland Guardians, when he hit his seventh home run of the season. And these struggles are happening even with the red-hot Kyle Schwarber "protecting" him.
Despite Schwarber's heavy lumber waiting in the on deck circle, teams are staying away from Harper. Pitchers are just not coming into the zone to let Harper get a sniff of anything remotely good to hit. As Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the weekend, Harper has seen more curveballs than any other qualified hitter (subscription required).
Harper's 421-foot home run on Saturday was on a four-seamer that clearly missed the intended target off the plate. With Guardians catcher Austin Hedges setup up outside, left-hander Joey Cantillo served the 89 mph offering over the plate. Harper didn't miss it.
MLB.com's Todd Zolecki notes that Harper had seen the fewest pitches in the zone entering Monday's action, just 42.9 percent of the time. That didn't get any better through Harper's four plate appearances against the Cardinals. He saw five of 18 pitches in the zone (27.8 percent), per Zolecki.
“He’s frustrated,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said after the game, per Zolecki. “He expects himself to produce. Right now, it’s off and on. The balance is a little bit off right now, and they’re pitching him tough.”
Harper's still doing everything right at the plate, with or without hair
There's no need to panic. This is a veteran superstar player we're talking about, not a fresh-faced rookie trying to figure things out for the first time. It's a healthy reminder that even the best players struggle at times while playing a humbling game.
The underlying metrics still look good. Harper is still taking his walks, at least. His 15.7 percent walk rate is his highest since his 2021 MVP season.
He's also not chasing out of the zone any more than in other years — his 35.9 percent chase rate is actually lower than his last three seasons. That's helping him post a 21.1 strikeout rate, which is lower than the last two seasons.
When he is hitting, he's impacting the ball just as hard. His 91.6 mph average exit velocity is the same rate he posted from 2022-24. His barrel rate of 11.1 percent is down from the 14.2 percent rate he posted during his first six years in Philadelphia, but higher than his 10.4 percent clip last year.
Harper just needs to get his swing locked in and not miss the mistakes when pitchers do come into the zone. Maybe taking a page out of Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni's grooming playbook will help him turn the tide. He has enough of a track record that it's only a matter of time before he breaks out again and looks like the Bryce Harper that Phillies fans are used to watching night in and night out.