Phillies' Harper says Dombrowski's review of his play was 'wild'

"I think the big thing for me was when we first met with this organization it was, 'Hey we're always going to keep things in-house and we expect you to do the same thing,' so when that didn't happen it kind of took me for a run a little bit, so I don't know. It's part of it, I guess. It was kind of a wild situation."

"He's the one that will dictate that more than anything else. I don't think he's content with the year that he had. Again, it wasn't a bad year. But when I think of Bryce Harper, you think elite, you think of one of the top-10 players in baseball and I don't think it fit into that category."

Bryce Harper said he found it 'kind of wild' that Dave Dombrowski publicly suggested Harper may no longer be an elite player. Harper said he was not motivated by Dombrowski's comments and expected evaluations to remain in-house after initial meetings with the organization. Harper finished 2025 with a .844 OPS and a .261 average, hit 27 homers, drove in 75 runs, and went 3-for-15 with no RBIs in the NLDS. A wrist injury cost him a month. Dombrowski called the season good but below Harper's MVP-caliber years and questioned whether Harper can return to that peak.

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