Perspective: Bryce Harper is a Phillie? Get used to it, Nats fans, ’cause you’ll be seeing a lot of him
Bryce Harper will face the Nationals 19 times this season with the Phillies. By Barry Svrluga Barry Svrluga Sports columnist with beat writing experience on baseball, golf, the NFL, college basketball and college football Email Bio Follow Sports columnist February 28 at 5:38 PM And so, on the final day of February, we can all circle the second day of April, when Bryce Harper will walk back through those doors again. While you’re at it, circle April 3. And June 17, 18, 19 and 20. And . . .
Now, he’s not. Plus, there’s this: The Phillies? He could have signed with, say, 27 other teams — not the just-up-the-road Orioles, of course — and this might have felt like normal baseball business. Painful, for sure. But normal business all the same. It’s got to be the Philadelphia factor, right? The Los Angeles Dodgers would have felt justifiable, a nice fit. Why, Harper grew up in Las Vegas, a short flight away. Los Angeles can spend — and has spent — more money than any team in the game. Plus, they’re the Dodgers, iconic if they’re anything. How could the Nats compete?
“If I walk into Nats Park as a visiting player?” Harper said to me one afternoon, sitting at the only locker he had ever known as a big leaguer. “That’s weird. And who wants to see that?”Maybe it had to end this way. The one thing we thought we knew throughout Harper’s free agency was that the Nationals offered him a 10-year, $300 million deal to remain in Washington. That seemed like it would be tantalizing, given how much Harper had professed his love for the District.
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