PHILADELPHIA — Not that Bryce Harper would get ahead of himself before the first pitch of a National League Championship Series, but he didn’t back away from thinking about it, either.
Questioned Monday about the possibility of making his switch to first base a more permanent gesture in the near future, Harper took and ran with his response.
“I feel good at first base,” Harper said. “Working with Bobby (infield coach Bobby Dickerson) every single day and getting me out there every day has been huge. It’s just trying to be really good over there for the guys in the infield. We have a really good infield, so I want to help them out as much as possible over there.”
Harper’s wish has been his quick command of a brand new position, something that was his idea to begin with and, to the credit of manager Rob Thomson and front office bosses, wasn’t ignored. Yes, Harper was only recently back from Tommy John surgery early this season, but it was the problem of filling the first base vacancy created by Rhys Hoskins’ knee injury toward at the end of spring training that created an issue. And Harper doing more during a game than being the designated hitter, while not incurring wear and tear of outfield play, didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
“I never really thought about (first base) until … the revolving door kept going,” Harper said. “I know having Alec Bohm play third base every day, that was a huge thing for me personally because I wanted him to be able to feel, ‘hey, I’m going to be the third baseman. I’m going to hit fourth or fifth every single day.’ I wanted him to feel comfortable every day at third.”
Bohm had been mostly solid across the diamond from his usual spot but seemed to benefit from a move back to third, which came in stops and starts. Harper was an obvious upgrade over Edmundo Sosa or the other utilitymen filling the spot. When Harper and his reworked elbow could be entrusted with first-base duty in July, Bohm would find himself again entrenched at third.
“I think it’s just all-around being able to make everybody else feel comfortable around me,” Harper said. “And I thought, hey, talk to (Thomson) and (team president) Dave (Dombrowski) and see what they say, and if they tell me to take a hike, I will. You know, stay where I’m at in my lane. (But) they thought it was a good idea, and has just been working ever since.”
Naturally, discussion of making Harper’s ongoing pursuit of mastering first base has to come with a caveat, as that was Hoskins’ house until the injury. Although Thomson teased a Hoskins return earlier in the week, he is not part of the NLCS roster. On Monday, however, it seemed as if a Hoskins return for the World Series has gone from wish to near assumption should the Phillies get past the Diamondbacks.
Thomson described Hoskins’ recovery progress as “really remarkable … he’s really close,” though he noted timing and baserunning drills are still needed to make his recovery seem complete. Even then, Hoskins’ World Series work would almost certainly be limited to designated hitter and pinch-hit roles.
Looking ahead, however, Hoskins will be a pending free agent coming off a serious injury. The implication of what that could mean for next season and beyond would remain downplayed, though addressed.
“With Rhys possibly coming back, whatever that determines or whatever happens with that, I expect him to go back to first base and me go to the outfield and play out there in some capacity,” Harper said. “But I don’t mind giving them the option, even if he does come back, if Rhys needs a day off, or giving them the option to put me at first base and them knowing, ‘we can put him there at any point and he’ll be fine.’”
For now, Harper can look back with pride at playing 36 games at first base during the regular season. He made one error, for a fielding percentage of .996. His only other MLB first-base appearances … really weren’t. He played there in 2021 in an almost-emergency situation for the Phils for one-third of an inning. And in 2018 with the Nationals, he came in as a fifth infielder with the bases loaded and nobody out, and was credited with a first-base position on the ensuing play – a walk-off hit by then Miami Marlin J.T. Realmuto.
That’s about it for experience until this season. Anyone would be hard-pressed to find any fault with the decision to leave him there and continue to excel.
Source: Berkshire mont