CLEARWATER, Fla. — If you’re curious, nine lockers are currently open in the Phillies’ spring training clubhouse at Spectrum Field, almost all of them in the traditional spots next to a veteran’s locker. Become a star in the bigs and you earn a bit of extra space.
As spring training progresses and cuts are made, more and more spots will become available. If Phillies fans had their way, though, that number would decrease by one very soon.
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They’d love for Bryce Harper to choose Philly. The Phillies and Harper have always made way too much sense, maybe more so than any other team in baseball. The franchise is on the upswing, with oodles of money to spent after years of low payrolls and a rich TV contract. Harper is a star with an MVP already under his belt and oodles of prime years left in his 26-year-old body.
It’s clear the Phillies want Harper. The other way around, though? That’s a bit murky.
Harper and his agent, Scott Boras, have made no secret of their desire to land a long-term mega deal. And the Phillies have reportedly offered something in the 10-year, $325 million range. That’s both long and mega. So why is Harper still on the market?
Maybe he wants to be closer to his Las Vegas roots. Maybe all those years with the rival Nationals gave him a distaste for Philly and he wants a premium to play there. Maybe he wants a bigger number. Maybe he just didn’t want to deal with spring training in February. All we really know for sure is that March is almost here, and Harper doesn’t have a spot in the Philly clubhouse.
Yet.
I asked Pat Neshek, the veteran reliever who’s been with the Phillies since the start of the 2017 season — minus a couple of months with the Rockies in 2017 — whether the Harper drama has made much of an impact inside the clubhouse.
“Not really, no. Not really,” he said. “I think it’s something the fans really get into. Yeah. If we get him, if we don’t, I think the fans, you’ll hear from them.”
Philly fans certainly have a way of making their feelings known, no doubt.
And they’re not exactly thrilled at the moment.
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They were promised, basically, by their owner early this offseason that something big would happen. At the end of October, at least one Las Vegas book put the Phillies as the favorites to land BOTH Harper and Manny Machado. So, yeah, the fans got a bit excited. But as you know, Machado signed a $300 million deal with San Diego, and Harper’s still on the loose.
It’s not like the Phillies have been stagnant. They gave Andrew McCutchen a three-year, $50 million deal to play left field. They traded for All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto and they traded for All-Star second baseman Jean Segura. Oh, and they signed ace Aaron Nola to a four-year deal that buys out at least one free-agent year, two with a club option.
Those are outstanding moves for a team that played very well for four-and-a-half months last year before sputtering to the finish line.
That optimism is what Neshek said the guys in the occupied lockers are thinking about.
“I think we’re just kind of building on that. We’ve added four guys, some really good players, which I think is going to help,” he said. “And there’s more guys out there, so we might add somebody — who knows? But I really like what we have in here. To me, it’s going to be how the starters step up and how they pitch this year. The East is going to be tough, though.”
