December 06, 2023
Bryce Harper is looking for a contract extension with the Phillies, his agent Scott Boras said Wednesday amidst a sea of reporters at MLB's winter meetings down in Nashville.
The Phillies' superstar first baseman is entering year six of the 13-year, $330 million megadeal he signed back in 2019, but there have been rumblings for a while now that Harper has intentions of playing well beyond that 13th year and into his 40s – while continuing to do so in Philadelphia.
Now Boras has thrown that idea directly out into the open.
"Bryce has certainly expressed to them that he wants to end his career in Philadelphia," Boras said (via ESPN). "I've certainly told [president of baseball operations] Dave [Dombrowski] I think Bryce is a franchise player. ... He came there for the fans. Apart from my advice, he goes, 'I just want to go and make sure I can recruit players in Philadelphia, let the fans in Philadelphia know that I'm going to be there for the duration, that I am committed.' I think he's been an important voice for them to attract major free agents."
Which, of course, does reflect within the Phillies' lineup, as J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, and Trea Turner have all latched on long-term in the past several years.
The not-so-subtle paper trail on the thought of a Harper contract extension goes back months and has been documented thoroughly by Tim Kelly over at Phillies Nation HERE.
We touched on it ourselves last month, and while the thought of adding on to a contract already this long and this expensive seems absurd at face value, right now we see it this way: In the time since signing that deal, Harper's consistent MVP-level play and the jump the Phillies took into postseason contention along with it have ended up proving that contract a massive bargain, all while the market value for new free agents continually increases year over year.
Re-adjusting in the form of an extension, especially when Shohei Ohtani is about to reset the market with an expected record-setting contract of over $500 million, suddenly isn't that far-fetched. Nor is there any remaining degree of subtlety after baseball's notorious super agent throws the thought directly out there in the middle of this:
Scott Boras is here at the Winter Meetings. pic.twitter.com/0U9XWsUha7
— Max Goodman (@MaxTGoodman) December 6, 2023
Harper has proven time and time again though that he does love Philadelphia, and club president Dave Dombrowski and owner John Middleton are never shy about opening up the checkbook when necessary either.
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