Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Harper dials back bravado
After down season, Nats star is playing things close to vest
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Bryce Harper tossed a red rubber ball back and forth between his hands Saturday as he answered questions from the media for the first time since last October.
Back and forth went the ball as Harper maneuvered through questions about the past, future and the present state of the Washington Nationals. Back and forth it went, and Harper seemed to do the same, fighting back the Las Vegas kid who used to say whatever he wanted, choosing the more calculated approach of a 24-year-old man trying not to say much at all.
This is Harper, a year removed from his MVP season. That polarizing bravado remains intact, but seems to have dimmed somewhat after a roller-coaster 2016 in which his production dropped dramatically. Gone are the unabashed musings about World Series rings and “making baseball fun again,” now replaced by cliches and artful dodges.
When asked about last year’s dropoff, for example, Harper said he knew “exactly why” he devolved quickly into mere mortality. But when asked for the reason, he rambled about his team and hard work. Then he hinted at that mystery injury he and his agent Scott Boras keep alluding to — the one Harper told Mike Rizzo and Dusty Baker and the training staff did not exist — late last season.
“… I stayed in the lineup last year and tried to help this team win every single day,” Harper said. “And that’s your goal every single day.”
Prodded later, he reiterated, “I stayed in the lineup, tried to play 150 games, went in to Dusty, and wanted to play every single day.”
A couple of hours later, Baker acknowledged there were times when Harper lobbied to play instead of rest. He said he sat his right fielder once in a while to keep him fresh. Baker also said he has his own theories about what went wrong for Harper last season, and that he shared them with the four-time All-Star.
“You’re in the big leagues, and these guys aren’t going to let you just keep beating on them,” Baker said. “They’re going to make adjustments. And now it’s up to you to make counter-adjustments.”
Harper is adjusting off the field, too. He is growing out of questions about his prodigious young talent, and growing into questions about his future — most notably his much-discussed free agency, still two seasons away. Asked about his future Saturday, Harper said everything the face of a franchise is supposed to say, praising the city, fans and team management.
But when asked about his team’s offseason moves, his initial reaction was not-so-subtly evasive.
“I’m excited for the move down to West Palm, to tell you the truth. That’s my biggest move I’m excited about,” said Harper, who took to Twitter this winter to express surprise after the much-analyzed trade for Adam Eaton, and also tweeted his desire for the Nationals to spend on catcher Matt Wieters and reliever Greg Holland instead of their spring training facility.
“But yeah,” he continued later, “as a whole, as a club, I think we did a great job. Of course, everybody has wants and needs and stuff like that.”
Harper only dropped the rubber ball once; it bounced away while he gushed about his offseason, in which he married his “beautiful bride” and was able to enjoy his family. In that moment, the facade seemed to fall away, too, revealing some of that old unfettered enthusiasm, that devilmay-care honesty.
“Everybody that said I was worried about baseball this offseason, I could care less,” Harper said. “…this was definitely one of the best offseasons I’ve had in long time. I actually enjoyed this offseason a lot more than my MVP year.”