{"id":230556,"date":"2025-10-21T18:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/230556\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T18:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:40:08","slug":"bryce-harpers-agent-scott-boras-claps-back-at-dave-dombrowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/230556\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryce Harper\u2019s Agent Scott Boras Claps Back At Dave Dombrowski"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Phillies<\/p>\n

Bryce Harper’s agent Scott Boras responded to Dave Dombrowski wondering if Harper is no longer elite. (AP Photo\/Nick Wass)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Well, that didn\u2019t take long: Bryce Harper\u2019s superagent has clapped back. <\/p>\n

Scott Boras, who\u2019s negotiated many of MLB\u2019s biggest contracts, including Harper\u2019s Phillies deal in 2019, responded to Dave Dombrowski\u2019s stunning comments<\/a> that Harper may no longer be an elite player. “I guess we only find out if (Harper) becomes elite or if he continues to be good,\u201d the team president said during Thursday\u2019s end-of-season press conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boras\u2019 response came via an exclusive piece by sports writer Christian Red<\/a>. \u201cI 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,” Boras told Red. <\/p>\n

It should be noted that Dombrowski highlighted Harper\u2019s not-so-elite year without mentioning a nagging wrist injury that put him on the IL for 23 days. Dombrowski\u2019s comments also whipped around Philly sports-talk radio and social media, inciting unhinged theories that the Phils are trying to trade Harper, who has six years remaining on his 13-year, $330 million deal. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Dave (Dombrowski) or (Phillies majority owner) John (Middleton) or anybody is contemplating Bryce Harper not being a Philadelphia Phillie for the rest of his career,” Boras said. <\/p>\n

Boras made sure to point out how elite Harper still is, saying that his WAR (3.2) in 2025 was better than it was in four other seasons (2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022).<\/p>\n

Boras also pointed out that Harper was one of only ten qualified hitters who had at least a .355 OBP and .485 slug; the others are Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Juan Soto, Cal Raleigh, Aaron Judge, Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez, Freddie Freeman, George Springer and Ketel Marte.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty nice group,\u201d Boras added.<\/p>\n

Bryce Harper’s agent Scott Boras says the Phillies’ superstar is still elite. (AP Photo\/Lynne Sladky)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

But truth be told, Harper\u2019s final statline showed a downturn in several categories. His .844 OPS was his lowest since 2016 and his .261 average was his worst since 2019. He also only hit 27 home runs, but it was clear that his injured wrist sapped his production for a stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look into expected baseball stats \u2013 Harper is pretty much on par with his career averages,\u201d Boras added. \u201cHe\u2019s surrounded by (Kyle) Tucker, (Fernando) Tatis (Jr.), (Bobby) Witt (Jr.), and (Rafael) Devers. His barrel rate, hard hit rate, exit velocity, are all in the top of MLB. His barrel rate is the same as Vladdy (Guerrero) Jr. and Witt Jr. His exit velocity is the same as Cal Raleigh\u2019s and Julio Rodriguez\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boras focused on offensive metrics but Harper\u2019s defense is also noteworthy. He\u2019s become a Gold-Glove-caliber first baseman<\/a> after shifting from the outfield following a Tommy John surgery in November 2022. <\/p>\n

His manager Rob Thomson, who also spoke at Thursday\u2019s press conference, said Harper\u2019s best years aren\u2019t behind him. \u201cI think he\u2019s highly motivated to have the best season of his career next year,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cWhat I\u2019d like to see is just him be himself, try not to do too much\u2026 Really focus on hitting the ball the other way. When he stays on the ball, he is such a great hitter. I think he just gets in the mindset that he tries to do a little too much because he knows that he\u2019s Bryce Harper.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bryce Harper’s agent Scott Boras responded to Dave Dombrowski wondering if Harper is no longer elite. (AP Photo\/Nick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,4034,139017,17856,25107,591,5137,105941,58173,5115,85],"class_list":["post-230556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baseball","tag-boras","tag-bryce-harper","tag-dave-dombrowski","tag-mlb","tag-phillies","tag-phils","tag-rob-thomson","tag-schwarber","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}