MLB star looking for massive pay day called out for lack of hustle
When you’re a ballplayer in a contract year approaching free agency, you want to do everything you can to convince every team in the league, including your own, that you’re worth the big-money blockbuster deal you’re hoping to sign in the offseason.
Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper seemed to forget that little tidbit of good advice in a loss to the Mets on Friday.
Harper, with a runner on first base against the Mets, hit a sharp grounder right at the shortstop, who turned it into an easy 6-4-3 double play.
And Harper, like he was in a scene from “Bull Durham,” found himself lollygagging to first base, not bothering to run out the ground ball.
Bryce Harper hits a sharp grounder to short and Amed Rosario and Asdrubal C.. ? https://t.co/wiOBPdVmzY
Vía MLB pic.twitter.com/HlV8NddHY7— Platano Power RD (@PlatanoPowerDO) July 14, 2018
This drew the ire of Nationals manager Dave Martinez, who hauled Harper into his office for a sit-down and some harsh words.
Martinez spoke to reporters after the heart-to-heart on Saturday, and the Associated Press reported what he said.
“I’ve spoken to Bryce and that’s a conversation that will stay between Bryce and I,” Martinez said.
“He wants to win, that’s all he cares about. Regardless of his average, he has 23 home runs and 53 RBI. I believe that he’s going to hit 40 and drive in 100. I’m a big fan of Bryce. I love the kid because of what he brings every day. He’s a good kid, that’s all I can say.”
Harper’s batting average, along with the rest of his advanced stats, have been downright lousy for an outfielder.
Sure, he’s got 23 homers. But no serious baseball statistician has relied on RBI in years, and even though Harper’s .836 OPS ranks him 11th among NL outfielders, his 0.3 wins above replacement is good for just 33rd overall among those who play the bulk of their defense on the grass far from the plate.
Oh, and there’s the simple matter of his batting average — he’s hitting .214, and he has more strikeouts (102) than hits (70).
If you reversed those numbers, he’d be hitting .312.
There are 45 starting outfielders in the National League. If they were distributed purely according to WAR, that would make Harper the third-best outfielder on the 11th-best team (through Saturday’s games, the 47-49 Pirates.)
That’s not going to win a guy a big-money contract, not when there are 32 better guys at his position according to the advanced stats.
Harper, meanwhile, was in no mood to talk about the incident. And while he’ll never top “clown question, bro” for dismissing a reporter, he was still brusque in the brush-off of the Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes.
Harper was frustrated to be asked about not running out the DP ball last night and whether Davey brought it up today like he mentioned he would.
“After I hit the ball 108 miles per hour?”
He ended the conversation shortly after.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) July 14, 2018
And in Harper’s defense, hustle may make good optics, but running as fast as they can on every play, every time can lead to injuries — as Harper proved last season when he landed awkwardly on the bag at first and suffered a knee injury that cost him more than a month of the regular season.
But to just give up on the play completely? It’s baseball, you have to at least pretend to try even if you’re picking your battles.
The Nationals are a team going nowhere thanks to injuries ravaging their roster. They have a vested interest in not hyping up their All-Star too much; it will be a lot easier to re-sign Harper at a discount if the rest of the league thinks he’s cold product.
But mostly Harper’s just serving as the classic cautionary tale; when you’re getting paid $20 million and think even that’s not enough, the least you can do is make an effort.
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