Bryce Harper’s future performance has become a topic of discussion for the Philadelphia Phillies as they enter a critical offseason. Dave Dombrowski, the team’s president of baseball operations, raised questions at his year-end press conference about whether Harper can return to “elite” status.
Harper and his agent Scott Boras have both addressed these concerns. Boras stated, “Give Bryce Harper more pitches to hit, and the metrics speak that all that they want will be delivered.”
One area under scrutiny is Harper’s approach at the plate. In 2025, only 43% of pitches he saw were in the strike zone, which was the lowest among 532 players with at least 200 pitches faced. This low rate has been linked to a lack of protection in the lineup; Phillies cleanup hitters had a combined .720 OPS last season, ranking them 20th in Major League Baseball.
Despite this, Harper’s in-zone pitch rate was slightly higher than during his first six seasons with Philadelphia. However, he became less patient at the plate. He swung at the first pitch 54.1% of the time in 2025—significantly above his career average—and had a chase rate of 35.6%, near his career high.
During his MVP seasons (2021 with Philadelphia and 2015 with Washington), Harper maintained much lower chase rates (24.8% and 25.6%, respectively), even though he also saw fewer strikes during those years.
Another factor is how Harper handled hittable pitches. From 2019-24, he posted strong numbers against pitches over the heart of the plate (.384 average and .837 slugging percentage). In contrast, those figures dropped to .303 and .652 respectively in 2025.
Clutch hitting has historically been part of Harper’s reputation. Between 2019-24 with Philadelphia, he led MLB with a 1.197 OPS when batting with two outs and runners in scoring position and posted a league-best postseason OPS of 1.153 during that period. Last season, however, he hit just .172 with runners in scoring position and two outs and did not record any home runs in those situations for the first time since 2014.
In postseason play this year, Harper went three-for-fifteen (.200) with a .600 OPS as Philadelphia made an early exit.
The Phillies will look for adjustments from Harper next season—particularly greater discipline on pitches outside the strike zone—to help him regain top form.
