Harper Doubles Down On Trout Comments: "If I Didn't Mean It I Wouldn't Have Said It"

Earlier this week, Bryce Harper made waves for saying he planned to ask the Angel’s Mike Trout to come to Philly as soon as he’s a free agent in 2020. Allegations of tampering followed, & today he was questioned about that & stuck to his words.

Reporter 1: “MLB says they reached out to the Phillies and the Angels. Has anyone reached out to you?”

Harper: “They talked to me a little bit. Not MLB or anything like that. But I guess, uh, when that time comes and guys are free agents, we’ll see what happens. I don’t know.”

Reporter 2: “But still… you meant it, right?”

Harper, straight-on-deadpan like a BOSS: “I mean, if I didn’t mean it, I wouldn’t have said it.”

Phillies fans:

Reporter 3: “Is it the equivalent of being called into the principals office, so to speak?”

Me:

Harper: Uh, what?

Reporter 3: “Them saying ‘don’t do this’…”

Harper: “I mean, no. I’ve never been called into the principal’s office so I don’t really know what that’s like, and I’m not sure what you’re trying to ask, so..” ::looks away like a stone cold fox::

Reporter 3 not giving up: “Well baseball said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna look into this’.”

Harper, shrugging like a G: “They look into everything.”

I’m interested to see how this plays out since the Angels are already upset about it, but ultimately don’t think anything crazy will come of it.

If you want the full background you can read Jordie’s blog HERE.

As a side note, Nate & I were talking about Bryce’s time in D.C. and how he stayed largely insular from his team’s city of over five years.

It feels like this time around, he’s done a 180. He’s sliding into Le’Veon Bell’s DMs telling him to come to the “greatest city”, he’s reeling in Trout, and he appears to have an enthusiasm for us that he hasn’t shown before. Whether it’s the realization that for the career long run, a necessary change of enthusiasm was needed, or it’s genuine, I can’t wait for the seasons to come.