Bryce Harper to stay at 1B going forward, Phillies president says
Harper made his first 49 career starts at 1B in the 2023 regular season and playoffs
The Bryce Harper experiment at first base is becoming the long-term answer for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters Wednesday that the former MVP will remain at first going forward, via MLB.com's Todd Zolecki:
"We decided we're going to play him at first base. ... He's happy to do whatever we wanted him to do. He said he'd play first or the outfield. He feels great. But the more we talked about it internally, we liked the idea of playing him at first."
Harper spent the first 11 seasons of his career playing as an outfielder or designated hitter (fun fact: he played catcher in college). Before the 2023 season, Harper had made two appearances at first base — neither of them starts — in his professional career, all the way back to when he was selected first overall in the 2010 MLB Draft.
That status quo was disrupted this season, after Harper underwent Tommy John surgery last November. Initially slated to be a full-time designated hitter, Harper took over first base after the Phillies struggled to find a replacement for longtime starter Rhys Hoskins, who missed all of 2023 due to a torn ACL suffered in spring training.
The returns on Harper at first were stunningly good for a guy playing a position regularly for the first time in his life, even if it is the consensus easiest position on the diamond. In the advanced defensive numbers, Harper posted one defensive run saved and three outs above average, both stats in which zero denotes league average.
Harper's success continued in the postseason, when he looked like a natural at first during the Phillies' run to the NLCS:
Bryce Harper, First Baseman. #Postseason pic.twitter.com/0BFGLuC83X
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2023
With Harper now set to cover first base in 2024 and beyond, and Kyle Schwarber seeing more time at designated hitter, the Phillies appear set to say goodbye to Hoskins, their second-longest-tenured player behind Aaron Nola. Dombrowski said Wednesday that he had explained the decision to Hoskins.
Hoskins is now a free agent, likely seeking a team with which he can post a bounce-back year and re-enter the market next winter.
