In Case We Forgot How Elite Bryce Harper Can Be

Is Bryce Harper elite? That has been a major point of conversation this offseason, thanks to Dave Dombrowski. The Phillies president either made an ill-advised, or perhaps calculated statement, questioning that very subject after the season.

We will see this coming season if Harper puts up elite numbers again. Last season was a down year by his standards. Still good compared to most MLB players, he hit 27 HRs and had a .844 OPS. But his SLG and OPS were the lowest they have been since he joined the Phillies.

He was good, great even, but he was not Bryce Harper. After several years of disappointing finishes for the Phillies, you can start to feel the wind change direction for Harper's status among Phillies fans. After "Bedlam At The Bank," he was an untouchable Super Star with the fans. There are still certainly fans for whom that is still true.

But there is a strong contingent where the act has run thin, and they want to see him deliver a trophy. On social media, at least, you can see more and more fans directing their frustrations at Harper.

We will see if he plays like the elite version of Bryce Harper again. But I think some have forgotten how elite he can be.

Last year saw Bryce Harper fall outside the top 20 in most categories. He was 24th in OPS and SLG, tied for 38th in HRs, and 68th in RBIs. But take the decade of Baseball before last season, and it is clear Harper is among the elite bats in the league.

From 2024 to 2024, here is where Bryce Harper ranked among qualified hitters

The one area where he fell outside the top of the league is AVG. He had a solid .283 AVG, which was 48th in Baseball over that time. Not elite, but still verygood. His elite OBP makes up for his AVG not being great.

In the playoffs his numbers look even more elite. Here is where he ranks among all hitters with at least 100 playoff Plate Appearances in that same time.

AVG- .300 (6th)

OBP- .423 (1st)

SLG- .653 (3rd)

OPS- 1.076 (2nd)

The counting stats are harder to judge, because while Harper played in 48 playoff games in that time, there are 20 players who played more than 60. The numbers are always going to be off because of course the players who play more games have more counting stats. But he still managed to be 8th in HRs with 16.

He gets some grief for the Phillies' shortcomings in the playoffs. And this past postseason, he was not good enough vs the Dodgers. But his slash line the year before vs the Mets was .333/.529/.750/1.279. He had a HR and 2 doubles in just 4 games, and accounted for 5 runs over those 4 games.

The year before that, in the NLCS loss to the DBacks, he hit just .217, but also had a .379 OBP, scored 7 runs in 7 games, and drove in 3, while walking 6 times and hitting 2 HRs.

Bryce Harper has not been the problem in October. Are there individual moments when he came up small? Sure. But we of course know of the many moments he came up huge too.

Harper is a fantastic player. Even last year, a down year for him, was still pretty great. Injuries caused him a few problems in the past couple of years. He will turn 34 in October, so eventually we should expect him to hit a wall, or at least slow down. Maybe he won't be an MVP-caliber player again.

But let's not forget how great a player he is. He is a 2-time MVP, 8-time All-Star, NLCS MVP, and 4-time Silver Slugger. Harper is going to walk into the Hall of Fame one day. He is one of the best playoff hitters of All-Time.

We will see this year if he still has that level of play in him. But even if last year is who he is now, he is still a top 30 hitter in the league.