Bryce Harper turned 33 the same day the Phillies gathered at Citizens Bank Park to close the book on 2025. The timing felt poetic. His seventh season in Philadelphia was the kind that doesn’t make highlight reels or collapse montages — steady, strong in flashes, but short of the electricity that usually follows his name. Twenty-seven homers. An .844 OPS. One of the best first basemen in the National League by most metrics, but, for Harper, a year that felt more solid than spectacular.
Dave Dombrowski, the team’s president of baseball operations, didn’t hide from that reality.
“In Bryce’s case, of course he’s still a quality player,” he said. “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.”
It was the kind of remark that echoed longer than any answer about free agency or roster holes. For the first time, someone inside the organization was asking a question that, until now, had always seemed unthinkable — can Bryce Harper still be Bryce Harper?
The numbers show a player who remains among the game’s best. His OPS ranked sixth among qualified first basemen. His glove was Gold Glove finalist-level. Yet his postseason was quiet — three hits in four games — and for a player who’s built a career on October volume, the silence stood out.
The numbers show a player who remains among the game’s best. His OPS ranked sixth among qualified first basemen. His glove was Gold Glove finalist-level. Yet his postseason was quiet — three hits in four games — and for a player who’s built a career on October volume, the silence stood out.
“Can he rise to the next level again?” Dombrowski asked aloud. “I don’t really know that answer. He’s the one that will dictate that more than anything else.”
To illustrate his point, Dombrowski brought up Freddie Freeman, another veteran still capable of brilliance but now living in a different phase of his career. “He still is a good player. Is he elite like he was before? Probably not to the same extent. And so that’s nothing negative. Freddie’s a tremendous player, and that, to me, is Bryce.”
To illustrate his point, Dombrowski brought up Freddie Freeman, another veteran still capable of brilliance but now living in a different phase of his career. “He still is a good player. Is he elite like he was before? Probably not to the same extent. And so that’s nothing negative. Freddie’s a tremendous player, and that, to me, is Bryce.”
Harper, younger by three years, played fewer games and finished with an OPS 25 points lower. The message wasn’t criticism so much as calibration — greatness looks different after 30.
“I don’t think he’s content with the year that he had,” Dombrowski added. “And again, it wasn’t a bad year. But when I think of Bryce Harper, you’re thinking elite, right? You’re thinking one of the top-10 players in baseball, and I don’t think it fit into that category. But again, very good player.”
For Harper, that “very good” label may be the one thing he refuses to wear. His career has never been about contentment. From teenage phenom to two-time MVP, he’s been measured against the impossible, and usually lived up to it. But baseball’s clock never stops ticking. “I have no idea,” Dombrowski said when asked what comes next. “I have seen guys at his age — again, not that he’s old — level off, or I’ve seen guys rise again. We’ll see what happens.”
Harper’s move to first base has stabilized the defense and preserved his arm after Tommy John surgery. He made just two errors all season, good for a .998 fielding percentage. But first base, in this town, is still a power position. It’s where the expectations live. The Phillies don’t need their first baseman to be dependable. They need him to be defining.
Manager Rob Thomson believes that version of Harper still exists.
For Harper, that “very good” label may be the one thing he refuses to wear. His career has never been about contentment. From teenage phenom to two-time MVP, he’s been measured against the impossible, and usually lived up to it. But baseball’s clock never stops ticking. “I have no idea,” Dombrowski said when asked what comes next. “I have seen guys at his age — again, not that he’s old — level off, or I’ve seen guys rise again. We’ll see what happens.”
Harper’s move to first base has stabilized the defense and preserved his arm after Tommy John surgery. He made just two errors all season, good for a .998 fielding percentage. But first base, in this town, is still a power position. It’s where the expectations live. The Phillies don’t need their first baseman to be dependable. They need him to be defining.
Manager Rob Thomson believes that version of Harper still exists.
“I think he’s highly motivated to have the best season of his career next year,” Thomson said. “That’s what the plan’s going to be for him.” He’s seen Harper respond to down years before, attacking off-seasons with obsessive precision. “He hasn’t told me this, but that type of person — and I’ve seen it before where they’ve had bad years — they go like gangbusters during the offseason to get better because they want to get back to where they normally are. I think that’s just Harp’s mindset. I think that’s what he’s going to do.”
Since 2019, Harper has a .912 OPS in Philadelphia. His postseason OPS with the Phillies is 1.090, and no one who watched him launch the homer that sent the club to the 2022 World Series doubts what he’s capable of. But after a season that was merely “good,” the question Dombrowski posed now lingers: is the superstar phase a memory or a pause?
Maybe this is what aging gracefully looks like for a superstar who has spent half his life under a spotlight.
Since 2019, Harper has a .912 OPS in Philadelphia. His postseason OPS with the Phillies is 1.090, and no one who watched him launch the homer that sent the club to the 2022 World Series doubts what he’s capable of. But after a season that was merely “good,” the question Dombrowski posed now lingers: is the superstar phase a memory or a pause?
Maybe this is what aging gracefully looks like for a superstar who has spent half his life under a spotlight.
Maybe it’s just the setup for another Bryce Harper response.
For now, the Phillies aren’t asking for fireworks — only proof that their franchise cornerstone can still tilt a season.
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