Bryce Harper has not publicly expressed his frustration, but according to a report in the New York Post, he is reportedly upset with Dave Dombrowski over negative comments about his elite status as a player with the Philadelphia Phillies.
The exclusive report was published by Jon Heyman, who indicated that Harper disliked Dombrowski’s remarks in which the executive admitted he was unsure if [Harper] could return to being the elite player he once was with the Phillies.
“Harper was said by people connected to the Phillies to be ‘p— off’ over [Dombrowski’s] comments, which were shockingly candid by today’s usually sanitized standards,” Heyman wrote in his article.
Harper to Remain with Phillies
Furthermore, in his article for the New York Post, Heyman revealed that the probability of Harper being traded by the Phillies is nearly nonexistent: “The chances of Harper being traded now are apparently even lower than him getting the extension he’s been seeking for a year.”
Dombrowski’s Recent Comments on Harper
Following Dombrowski’s initial comments, where he admitted that Harper’s year did not seem like an elite season, the Phillies’ top executive had to offer clarification on Foul Territory. On October 23, he spoke again about Harper and his current “elite status.”
“First of all, to me, Bryce Harper is one of the best players in the game of baseball,” Dombrowski said. “They asked me, ‘What type of year did you think he had?’ And I said, ‘He had a very good year; I don’t think he had an elite year.’“
“When I say that, when I think of Bryce Harper, it’s a compliment. Because the reality is there are eight to 10 players in the game of baseball every year, when they’re not let’s say in the MVP consideration for whatever reason — sometimes it can be an injury factor, sometimes they just have a bad year — but it’s not an elite year for them.”