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By Patrick McAvoy
Contributing Sports Writer
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There has been a lot said about the Philadelphia Phillies' season after they were knocked out of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
One of the biggest talking points since the season ended for the Phillies was president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski's comments about Bryce Harper. Dombrowski questioned whether Harper could play at an "elite" level again after a somewhat down year in 2025. The comments got blown out of proportion a tad as Dombrowski said he's still an All-Star-level talent. He didn't rip the superstar, but posed a fair question.
Harper's agent Scott Boras responded in an interview with Christian Red in a story for his Substack.
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"I don’t think Dave (Dombrowski) or John (Middleton) or anybody is contemplating Bryce Harper not being a Philadelphia Phillie for the rest of his career," Boras said. “Remember, there’s only ten (10) qualified hitters that had a .355 OBP (On-Base Percentage) and .485 SLG (Slugging Percentage) this year: Bryce, (Shohei) Ohtani, (Kyle) Schwarber, (Juan) Soto, (Cal) Raleigh, (Aaron) Judge, (José) Ramírez, (Freddie) Freeman, (George) Springer and (Ketel) Marte. If you want to talk about Harper’s minimums due to injury, there they are...
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"I agree that (Harper) missed time due to injury and that his volume was down, but other than that, Bryce Harper is performing at an elite level on a number of characteristics that we keep track of. By comparing Harper to Harper, his WAR (Wins Above Replacement) in 2025 was as good or better than it was in the 2019, 2022, and 2023 seasons with Philadelphia. And better than his 2016 and 2018 seasons with Washington (Nationals). Granted, he missed time in ’22 and ’23, but his WAR is the same as those seasons, too. When you look into expected baseball stats – Harper is pretty much on par with his career averages."
Harper is one of the top overall players in baseball when he's at his best. He's just 33 years old. There are plenty of good years ahead for him.
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