Harper was taken aback by Phils’ public critique (0:56)
Harper was taken aback by Phils’ public critique (0:56)
Feb 15, 2026, 11:24 AM ET
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper said Sunday «it’s kind of wild to me still» that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski suggested in October that the two-time National League MVP may no longer be an elite player.
Harper said he wasn’t motivated by Dombrowski’s comments. He added he didn’t understand why Dombrowski made public his review of Harper’s season and postseason.
«I don’t get motivated by that kind of stuff. For me it was kind of wild the whole situation of that happening,» Harper told reporters. «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’s .844 OPS last season was his lowest since 2016, and his .261 average was his worst since 2019. Harper, 33, has six seasons left on his 13-year, $330 million deal. He hit 27 homers and drove in 75 runs in the 2025 regular season and was 3-for-15 with no RBIs in the Phillies’ four-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Division Series.
Dombrowski said it was a good season but below Harper’s MVP levels of 2015 with the Washington Nationals and 2021 with the Phillies.
«Can he rise to the next level again? I don’t really know that answer,» Dombrowski said after last season. «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.»
A wrist injury forced Harper to miss a month. Even so, he agreed his production didn’t meet his standards.
«Obviously, I didn’t have the year that I wanted,» Harper said. «Obviously, I don’t have a postseason I wanted. My numbers weren’t where they needed to be. I know that, and I don’t need to be motivated to be great in my career or anything else. So that’s just not a motivating factor for me. For Dave to come out and say those things, it’s kind of wild to me still.»
Considering the time missed with the wrist injury, his production last season was not a dramatic decline from his 2024 season, when he finished sixth in the NL MVP voting after hitting .285 with 30 homers and 87 RBIs while landing his fourth Silver Slugger Award and making his eighth All-Star team.
Harper has a .280 batting average with 363 homers in 14 seasons in the majors, including seven with the Phillies.
