Philadelphia Phillies superstar Bryce Harper reportedly reacted to Dave Dombrowski's recent comments about the first baseman's performance this year exactly how you'd expect: with anger.
This situation started when the president of baseball operations answered a question about how he thought Harper performed this year during hisend-of-season press conference . He seemingly called into question Harper’s status as an elite player in the league.
From there, things spiraled.
Bryce Harper not happy about Dave Dombrowski's comments about his performance
As reported by the New York Post's Jon Heyman on Friday, Harper took exception to Dombrowski's evaluation of his season and was reportedly “pissed off” (subscription required). Phillies Tailgate on X (formerly Twitter) shared a quote from Heyman's article about the star first baseman's reaction to the comments.
“Harper was said by people connected to the Phillies to be “pissed off” over [Dombrowski’s] comments, which were shockingly candid by today’s usually sanitized standards," according to Heyman.
To be fair, Dombrowski's comment during the press conference was just an honest assessment of Harper's season.
“He’s still a quality player,” Dombrowski said about Harper’s down year during the press conference, per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “He’s still an All-Star-caliber player. He didn’t have an elite season like he has had in the past. And I guess we only find out if he becomes elite or he continues to be good.”
“Can he rise to the next level again?” Dombrowski said, per Zolecki. “I don’t really know that answer. He’s the one that will dictate that more than anything else.”
We'll never know if the executive meant to secretly use his words as a motivation tactic for the infielder. That is for people to speculate on their own.
One thing is certain: Dombrowski has no interest in trading Harper, nor does the first baseman have an interest in waiving or modifying his no-trade clause.
Dombrowski was complimentary of Harper and clarified what he meant by his previous comments about his evaluation of the first baseman's season to Erik Kratz on the Foul Territory podcast on Oct. 23.
"I'll take my chances with Bryce more than most because Bryce is an elite talent, he's a very talented individual, and he's driven,” Dombrowski said. “So I think it's a shame where this has gone because it wasn't meant to be a criticism. When you talk about Bryce and there's a few other guys, when they aren't in the MVP consideration, it's probably [because they did] not [have] as good a year as they've had other times."
Harper should be angry, but not at Dombrowski. The Phillies' first baseman should not be happy or satisfied (and he probably isn't) with the season he had.
He should channel that anger into extra motivation during his training in the offseason and continue to use it beginning in spring training throughout next year, to prove his doubters wrong. More importantly, he should prove it to the organization and to himself that he can have a more productive season in 2026.