The star first baseman, Bryce Harper, is still bickering with the headstrong president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski. Then, the interim manager cannonballed into the fray with some strong words for Harper before Wednesday\u2019s game. The Phillies need help at the trade deadline. Everyone knows it. Harper just chose to say it out loud<\/a> Tuesday night. That annoyed team officials.<\/p>\n \u201cI sense Bryce is thinking about it,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cI don\u2019t really sense anybody else thinking about it, honestly. \u2026 Guys want to be GMs without a real understanding of where the organization is, exactly where this thing goes. Not only this year, but moving forward. Players like being GMs and making calls and spending other people\u2019s money. So I just let it go at that. I mean, Dave\u2019s been doing this a while. He\u2019s never really backed away from trying to get guys. We\u2019re trying to get better. We\u2019re going to try to get better at the deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n Why is everyone watching for hugs before the trade deadline?<\/p>\n Tyler Kepner and Lauren Morales-Jones<\/p>\n It\u2019s still July. The stakes, relatively speaking, remain low. The Phillies still occupy a playoff position, even after two weeks of bad baseball. They have already proven it\u2019s unwise to assume anything about them. They are going to make trades to add pieces; Dombrowski has summoned about a dozen members of the front office for a rendezvous this weekend in Baltimore. There, the Phillies will chart their course ahead of Monday\u2019s trade deadline.<\/p>\n A certain uneasiness overcame everyone in April. This feels different. The Phillies are not getting destroyed every night. Maybe that makes it worse; they have been close enough to exhaust their best relievers \u2014 sometimes in losing efforts. The inconsistent lineup has been good enough on some nights, but it also has not all clicked at once. Even when the Phillies were playing better than just about any team for two months, they were never firing as an efficient machine.<\/p>\n That might explain the current frustration.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just feels like this is the time of year when you want to start playing well and get hot in the second half,\u201d shortstop Trea Turner said. \u201cMake a push into the postseason and then try to ride that out as long as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n Nothing is guaranteed. So, what is this team?<\/p>\n \u201cI think this team\u2019s amazing,\u201d Luzardo said. \u201cEveryone saw it. We were the best team in baseball over an extended period of time. So I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a team problem. I think we\u2019re in a bad rut. \u2026 After the All-Star Game, we might\u2019ve come back a little slow. \u2026 But I think that we\u2019re more than capable.\u201d<\/p>\n Harper, yet again, is at the center of things.<\/p>\n When asked Tuesday night if this lineup can hit good pitching come October, he said: \u201cI think we need some help. I think we\u2019ve proved pretty much all year, we\u2019ve done a pretty good job, but anytime you can get some help in here and reinforcements, I think it helps.\u201d<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t anything controversial about that take, except that it might have some teammates questioning whether Harper thinks they are good enough. Maybe it\u2019s not the most professional way to handle it.<\/p>\n Harper did not name any specific unit or player. \u201cBoth,\u201d he said when asked if the Phillies needed pitching or hitting. Can they land it?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see. I mean, that\u2019s a Dave question.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Dave Dombrowski\u2019s comments about Bryce Harper, made during an end-of-season news conference, remain a storyline more than nine months later. (Doug Murray \/ Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n It\u2019s not hard to see through this. Dombrowski wondered aloud last October whether Harper could still be an elite player. Harper took it personally<\/a>, at least the fact that Dombrowski did it in public. Harper, who carried a .908 OPS through June but has a .630 mark in July, wants to win a World Series. So, he\u2019s now publicly challenged Dombrowski to improve the roster. The cold war lurches into its 10th month.<\/p>\n Harper and Dombrowski have not repaired their relationship. That might not matter except for brief, uncomfortable moments like this. Harper is under contract through 2031. Dombrowski is signed through 2027, although the Phillies are expected to extend him in the near future while perhaps publicly disclosing a succession plan.<\/p>\n Neither Harper nor Dombrowski, two powerful men with huge egos, particularly cares for the other. They probably should figure it out.<\/p>\n \u201cBryce is Bryce,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to say what he wants. I\u2019m not really concerned about it. I take it kind of with a grain of salt. And knowing how players are over the years, it\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve heard this. I always look at it, like, internally. \u2018I got to get better. We got to get better.\u2019 Simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2262739194-scaled.jpg\")
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