Harper eager to get Phillies to playoffs

Bryce Harper’s first year in Philadelphia ended with his former team winning the World Series, and the Phillies suffered another September collapse in his second season.

He says it’s time to end the team’s nineyear absence from postseason baseball.

“I hate being home for Halloween,” Harper said Thursday in Clearwater, Fla. “The city of Philadelphia deserves it and they need it. We’re a team that can hopefully do that for them and give that to them. They deserve to be in the stands in October and I know they’re willing to do that.”

Before the Phillies hired David Dombrowski to be president of baseball operations and signed catcher J.T. Realmuto and shortstop Didi Gregorius, Harper wasn’t sure about the team’s direction.

Then, Phillies managing partner John Middleton brought Dombrowski on board and promoted Sam Fuld to replace general manager Matt Klentak.

“You don’t really bring in Dombrowski unless it’s a winnow move,” Harper said.

Dombrowski won a World Series with the Marlins in 1997, another with the Red Sox in 2018 and reached two with the Tigers. He’s trying to lead the Phillies to success after they fell one win shy of reaching the expanded postseason in the pandemicshortened 2020 season.

Harper hit .268 with 13 homers, 33 RBIs and a .962 OPS in the second year of his $330 million, 13year contract. He led the majors with 49 walks and was fifth with a .420 onbase percentage. Harper tailed off down the stretch while playing with a back injury.

Yelich update: Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell says he won’t be shy about using 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich in the team’s early Cactus League games.

Yelich is attempting to bounce back from a season in which he hit .205 after winning batting titles in 2018 and 2019.

“We’ll definitely get started earlier with Christian this spring and then take it from there,” Counsell said. “The goal would be to get him going early, kind of get him feeling good and ease off toward the middle of spring then kind of ramp him back up later in the spring.”