Bryce Harper is a multitasking teacher. In addition to preparing for the 60-game sprint that will be the 2020 baseball season, he’s offering advice to Phillies owners and the front office.
A week after his voice echoed across Citizens Bank Park with a call to sign teammate JT Realmuto to a contract extension, Harper went to Twitch Thursday night and voiced his thoughts on how the Phillies They should establish their initial launch a second time through rotation.
“If Spencer Howard is not in our initial rotation for Game 6 in New York against the Yankees, there is a problem,” said Harper. “That’s all I say”.
Harper’s comment came after Howard dazzled by a couple of innings at an in-school game on Thursday night.
On Friday, Howard laughed when asked about the man’s $ 330 million vote of confidence.
“It’s great, man,” said Howard. “Obviously, he’s been one of the faces of baseball forever, and for him to be a Phillie from Philly for 13 years or whatever, I think he’s definitely looking for the younger guys who come into the system and he’s trying to integrate into the whole organization of the Phillies, so I think it’s great “
Harper is all-in with the Phillies. He saw his old team, the Washington Nationals, win a World Series last year and he wants one. He wants good players around him. He told club officials when they were wooing him 18 months ago and he’s doing it now, boldly exposing everything for the public to see and hear.
Harper is so enthusiastic that he is even aware of baseball’s time-of-service rules. If the Phillies keep Howard off the active roster for the first week of the season, they’d control him for an additional year before free agency. It is a common practice in baseball offices. Players don’t like it and are likely to push for changes to the system in the next union agreement. But for now, it’s part of the game. Heck, it even happened to Harper when he was a rookie with the Nationals in 2012.
Harper can be sure that the Phillies know what they have at Howard. They know it is one of their best arms and they know it is ready to show what it can do in the majors.
But the Phils administration will likely protect that additional year of control and delay Howard for a week, delaying his potential free agency until after the 2026 season. There has been no official news from the club on the matter, but it makes sense in the long term. and organizationally.
Howard, who turns 24 at the end of this month, understands.
“It’s part of (baseball),” he said. “There’s not much I can do about it other than taking care of my job every day and trying to improve a little bit and keep progressing, and what they choose to do is up to them.”
Howard added that his mindset is to keep rolling with “everything I can control.”
But he left no doubt that he believes he is ready for the majors.
“I’m ready for whatever they throw at me,” he said.
Third baseman Alec Bohm, another great prospect, is in a boat similar to Howard’s. He’s probably not nearly as close to contributing in the big leagues as Howard, but he could sometime this season. The Phillies will probably wait to add him to the active roster to preserve an additional year of control.
“There are no hard feelings about it,” Bohm said. “It is what it is. That’s something they can do. It’s a smart business move. I’m not going to hold a grudge or stink. It’s part of the game. Everyone’s been through it.”
Bohm now shares an agent with Harper, having signed with Scott Boras in April. Boras, the most powerful agent in baseball, has a lot of Phillies with Harper, Rhys Hoskins, Jake Arrieta, Vince Velásquez, Nick Williams and Bryson Stott. Bohm said his move to Boras was a family decision, but admitted that he consulted with some of Boras ‘Phillies’ clients before moving. He had previously been represented by the Wasserman group.
Harper and Bohm established a relationship at spring training. Harper strives to bond with young prospects, her future teammates.
“You have a feeling that he knows he’s going to be here for a while and he knows how important it is to the guys, not just to Spencer and me, but to everyone who comes through the organization,” Bohm said. “For us to be successful within the organization, we are not just going out and spending money on the boys. He has been really welcoming and has helped us whenever he can. He has welcomed us just like everyone else.”
When Howard joins the Phillies, he can immediately throw multiple innings, either from the bullpen or in the rotation. The Phillies will need multiple-inning relievers for the first few weeks of the season as the starters build innings and endurance. Howard could be one of those multi-inning relievers before taking a look at the rotation. That is where your future is.
It remains to be seen whether Bohm’s future is in his natural third base position or first base. Hoskins will have something to say about it. He struggled a lot in the second half of last season. More struggles this season could lead the Phillies to look at Bohm at first. If Hoskins comes up and blocks first base, Bohm could get a few reps later this season as the designated hitter. Third baseman Jean Segura is signed until 2022, but it’s not out of the question that he could return to shortstop next season, as Didi Gregorius will become a free agent after this season. That would open up third base for Bohm.
These things have a way of working out. At the moment, this is what we need to know: Spencer Howard and Alec Bohm are very talented. They’ll probably help the Phillies in 2020. It may not happen the first week of the season.
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