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Bryce Harper's Resurgence Validates Dombrowski's Criticism Bryce Harper has returned to elite form in 2026 with a .915 OPS, silencing doubters after a down year in 2025.
His performance addresses executive Dave Dombrowski's public questioning of Harper's ability to 'rise to the next level,' though it also highlights the pressure on the Phillies' GM.
Analysis shows Harper's 2025 decline was largely due to bad luck, making his current season a return to his lofty career baseline.
Bryce Harper is still elite.
The jury is out on Dave Dombrowski.
s 2026 world-wrecking tour is that he has somehow managed to both vindicate his boss and hang him over the dunk tank.
There isnt an executive in Major League Baseball that should be feeling more pressure thanCan he rise to the next level again? " Dombrowski said of Harper after the Phillies postseason loss to the Dodgers.I dont really know that answer.
Eight months later, Dombrowski should know it better than anyone.
The Phillies personnel boss has spent 84 games watching Harper bail him out of another failure of an offseason.
One year after the Phillies superstar posted an .844 OPS that was his lowest since 2016, his current .915 OPS be his best since 2021, when he hit .309/.429/.615 with 35 home runs en route to winning his second MVP.Harpers 19 home runs in his first 83 games were his second-most as a member of the Phillies.
His .391 wOBA ranked eighth in the major as of Saturday.
His .278/.379/.536 batting line is pretty much exactly his career baseline.
It is a lofty baseline.You might even call it elite.
While Harper might argue that retribution is a dish best served raw , his performance this season actually lends some credence to his boss offseason critique.
Harper isnt proving Dombrowski wrong.
He is proving him right.Fact is, Harper wasnt an elite player in 2025.
Between 2021 and 2024, Harper was one of five players in the majors with a wOBA of .390+.
The other four were Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Yordan Alvarez.
Add in Ronald Acuna Jr., Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts and those were the truly elite hitters in Major League Baseball.Harpers .361 wOBA ranked 25th, behind guys like Ramon Laureano , Pete Alonso and Geraldo Perdomo.
That was Dombrowskis whole point.
You can certainly question whether it was an appropriate one to make.
The under-the-hood numbers suggested that Harpers down year was mostly attributable to chance.There werent any significant dips in his hard hit rate or his strike out rate or his bat speed.
He showed less signs of regression than most 32-year-old hitters.
The Phillies could not have hoped for any better of a return on the first seven years of the 13-year, $330 million contract that Harper signed in 2019.
As the old saying goes, dont look a gift horse in the mouth and tell him he isnt elite.Get David Murphys clear-eyed analysis and fresh perspective on the biggest stories in Philly sports.
At the same time, Dombrowskis assessment was correct.
In 2025, Harpers production wasnt in the same realm as a Judge or a Soto or an Ohtani.
It just wasnt.He was still a very, very good player.
He just wasnt a singular one.
Here in 2026, Harper is reminding us just how much of an impact he can make when he is elite.
The Phillies have been the best team in baseball since the beginning of May despite a lineup that has five regulars who have been 30 percent worse than league average as measured by OPS+.Harpers 146 OPS+ is more than twice as high as those of four of the six guys who hit behind him in the lineup.
, any realist should wonder how good theyd be with a roster that wasnt completely reliant on two MVP seasons at the plate, two Cy Young seasons in the rotation, and one of the best closers in the game ..
andWith just over a month to go until Major League Baseballs trade deadline, Dombrowski and his front office better have a serious plan for broadening the teams potential contributors for a postseason series against the Dodgers or Braves.Even with Marshs All-Star-worthy season, the Phillies outfield entered Sunday with the sixth-worst collective OPS in the majors.
At catcher, theirs is the second-worst OPS.
They rank in the bottom five at third base and short stop and are 23rd at third base.
But, hey, other than that theyve been great.Phillies wont rush Andrew Painters return to majors.
Instead, its about getting himself right.Even if you are willing to credit Crawford with being a perfectly adequate bottom-of-the-order hitter at a premium position in center field, the aggregate output of the offseason maneuvering still qualifies as a man-made disaster.to aggressively address the holes that threaten to undermine one of the greatest efforts weve ever seen from five superstars in one season.spouts opinions each day on sports-talk radio and the Phillies' television pre- and postgame show.
But before all that, he had a solid career as a relief pitcher, even representing the Phillies in the 1996 All-Star Game at Veterans Stadium.With the baseball world set to descend on Philly again in a few weeks, Ricky Bo joined "Phillies Extra" to re-live his All-Star experience.