December 27, 2025
John Geliebter/Imagn Images
Dave Dombrowski's remarks questioning if Bryce Harper is still elite might have been good motivational fodder.
Only Dave Dombrowski truly knows how he anticipated his surprising end-of-season comments about Bryce Harper would be perceived by Harper.
Maybe the Phillies’ president of baseball operations was just being honest about some decline in Harper’s production – or maybe he was expected that his prideful superstar would respond with extra motivation.
If the latter is the case, Dombrowski might just be a motivational genius.
Harper, on his TikTok account, recently posted a video of him in the batting cage, getting in some work. He can be seen wearing a black T shirt that says “Not Elite” across the chest – an obvious reference to Dombrowski’s postseason comments in which he questioned whether Harper “becomes elite” again after a good but not spectacular 2025 season.
For those not on TikTok, courtesy of NBC Sports Philadelphia's John Clark:
“Not elite”
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) December 27, 2025
Phillies superstar Bryce Harper posted a video working out with a shirt that says “Not Elite”
Phils President Dave Dombrowski said that he did not know if Bryce Harper was elite anymore. Bryce has an edge!
Dave Dombrowski said he does not know if Bryce Harper can… pic.twitter.com/6YbDMRa7RS
Harper doesn’t say anything in the video, which only has music playing in the background as he takes swings off a machine inside a cage. But perhaps the shirt does all the talking.
If you need a refresher, Dombrowski was stunningly honest in his assessment of Harper during his press conferences after the Phillies had been eliminated by the Dodgers in the National League Division Series.
He said Harper is still a “quality player” and still an “All Star-caliber player” but added that Harper “didn’t have an elite season like he has had in the past.”
“And I guess we only find out if he becomes elite or he continues to be good,” Dombrowski added, before drawing a strange comparison between Harper and Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, whose offensive production has slipped in the past two years as Freeman has entered his late 30s.
“Is he elite like he was before? Probably not to the same extent,” Dombrowski said about Freeman. “Freddie is a tremendous player, and that, to me, is Bryce. Can he rise to the next level again? I don’t really know that answer. He’s the one that will dictate that more than anything else.”
Harper, not surprisingly, was reportedly "pissed off" by Dombrowski’s scouting report on him.
Harper, who has battled injuries and not played more than 145 games in any of his past four seasons, missed some time with a right wrist injury in June that has also bothered him in the past. He played 132 games in 2025 with 580 at-bats, finishing with 27 homers and 75 RBIs. His 3.1 WAR was his lowest as a Phillie in any season that he’s played at least 100 games.
Harper told The Athletic he was “hurt” by Dombrowski’s comments, but at MLB's GM meetings in November, Dombrowski told reporters that they had talked it out and the conversation “went well.”
Still, Harper has always been outspoken and prideful, and the slogan on his T-shirt in that TikTok video shows that Dombrowski's comments are still on his mind. He has carried them with him into the batting cages this offseason.
Which could be a good thing – and proof that Dombrowski’s motivational tactic worked, if that’s what Dombrowski was planning all along.
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