February 16, 2026
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Bryce Harper and the Phillies are still expected to be a good team, but it's hard to see them being an outright great one heading into 2026.
Bryce Harper spoke to the media in Clearwater on Sunday for just shy of 15 minutes.
The obvious headline-grabbing question of Dave Dombrowski's "elite" pondering from last October was lobbed right down the middle to him, and just like when he gets the barrel of the bat on a pitch midway through that powerful swing, he crushed it.
Harper, the Phillies' superstar, said he wasn't motivated by Dombrowski's, the Phillies' president of baseball operations, questioning of whether he could ever be truly elite again after just an OK season, by Harper's standards, and another early postseason burnout.
But at the least, he seemed irritated, and the air around him, a bit uncomfortable.
But maybe that's what he needs. Maybe that's what the Phillies need: to get out of the comfort zone they have settled into and left mostly unchanged since 2023. It has repeatedly left them in the same spot: short of a World Series.
Maybe the Phillies need to get uncomfortable.
"For me, it was kind of wild, the whole situation of that happening," Harper said of Dombrowski's open thoughts about him after last season's NLDS loss to the Dodgers. "I think the big thing for me was when we first met with this organization, it was 'Hey, we're always gonna keep things in house, and we expect you to do the same thing.' 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's kind of a wild situation, that even happening. Obviously, I didn't have the year that I wanted. Obviously, I didn't have the postseason I wanted. My numbers weren't where they needed to be. I know that. I don't need to be motivated to be great, in my career or anything else. So that's just not a motivating factor for me.
"For Dave to come out and say those things, it's kind of wild to me still."
But Harper kept going (as captured in full by 94WIP), or that is, in spots where he was interested enough to, which on its own said volumes.
Bryce Harper's entire 14-minute media session today at Phillies Spring Training in Clearwater, Florida.
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) February 15, 2026
0:00 - Phillies' 2026 clubhouse
0:40 - Nick Castellanos' goodbye letter
1:10 - Bryce Harper's 2025 season
2:11 - Dave Dombrowski's comments
3:19 - "Not Elite" t-shirt
3:35 -… pic.twitter.com/6sE9ca1i2V
He was asked about baseball's financial landscape and the Dodgers' continued and relentless willingness to spend, in the face of a winter where the bulk of the Phillies' spending went toward keeping Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto around, with a failed pursuit of Bo Bichette thrown in there.
He was highly complimentary of the back-to-back world champions.
"I love what the Dodgers do, obviously," Harper said. "They pay the money, they spend the money. They're a great team. They run their team like a business, and they run it the right way. They understand where they need to put their money into, but also, people don't look at this either, their [drafting] and their development is unbelievable. They draft, and they develop, and then they trade those guys for big-name guys and they can spend the money. I don't know. It bothers me when everybody talks about the Dodgers just spending money. They draft, they develop, they do it the right way. They understand what it takes to be the best team in baseball, and you've seen it the last two years. They have so much depth."
When the importance of the cleanup hitter behind him was brought up, he wasn't bashful, which right now, turns even more eyes toward a polarizing Alec Bohm in a contract year.
"It's a huge impact in the four spot," Harper said. "I think anybody, it doesn't matter if it's me or Schwarbs...So I think the four spot's a huge impact. I think the numbers in the four spot weren't very good last year either for our whole team. So, I think whoever's in that four spot is gonna have a big job to do, depending on who's hitting three or who's hitting two."
Harper said he thought Schwarber was going to go home to the Cincinnati Reds during the slugger's free agency, that the club needs top pitching prospect Andrew Painter to finally break through because they have no idea how effective longtime ace Zack Wheeler will be once he does return to the mound, and that while he later confirmed that he has spoken to Dombrowski since the "elite" comments, he still seemed to think they never should've been made at a podium in front of a flood of cameras and recorders.
"I just think the conclusion is, obviously, we keep things in-house," Harper said. "That's just how it's always been, and in that moment, it just didn't happen. I think my locker is always open for them to come and talk to me and vice versa, so it is what it is right now."
But maybe not anymore.
Bryce Harper needs to be better in 2026, but the Phillies are also going to need dependable production out of the cleanup spot behind him.
When Harper spoke on Sunday, if he wasn't direct or outright uninterested in exploring a certain subject (like his interest in holistic medicine), he left just enough of an opening in his words to connect the dots.
The Phillies are stuck as a good but not great and aging team. Harper himself might be stuck at 33 years old, coming off a relatively down season with a building injury history, and already more than halfway through his 13-year and $330 million mega deal, still with no World Series ring to show for it.
The Phillies are what they are right now. Most fans see it, and after knowing the club whiffed on Bichette for what would've been the shakeup that many still think they need, it's gotten hard to have optimism that they won't end up back in the same old place of hitting a postseason wall again in 2026.
Maybe the Phillies are past staying in-house about their situation.
Maybe they need to be uncomfortable.
At least it's some kind of path forward.
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