Don’t look now, but Harper has seemingly turned himself into an elite defender at first.
Let’s take a trip back to July 21st of 2023. Bryce Harper, a little over a month after a near-miraculous return from Tommy John surgery, took the field to start at first base for the first time in a Major League game. His only previous extensive infield experience was playing catcher in high school. He had logged over 10,000 career innings in the outfield over 11 seasons in the Majors but never played any other position.
Flash forward to nine months later, and Bryce Harper is one of the best fielding first basemen in the Majors. Harper enters play on Thursday leading all 1B in outs above average (3) and defensive WAR (1.1) through 18 games played. In fact, his OAA is tied with former Platinum Glove winner Kevin Kiermaier and two-time Gold Glove winner Francisco Lindor among others for third best across all positions in baseball. Harper’s 3 defensive runs saved are second among first basemen behind Arizona’s Christian Walker who has 5 so far. Walker took home the Gold Glove for the National League in 2023, his second straight time winning the honor.
If you prefer more traditional defensive stats rather than metrics, Harper has no errors thus far this season and has just one in 464 innings at first dating back to last season. He’s made numerous diving stops that have prevented extra bases and has even tumbled into the crowd on more than one occasion to record an out.
“Three accountants passed out upstairs.”
– Rob Thomson on Bryce Harper’s acrobatic catch ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/5xW66rE5BW
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) July 24, 2023
It’s almost uncanny how quickly Harper has taken to the position. There are still a few mental miscues, such as cutting off a throw rather than letting it go by or ranging too far instead of letting the ball go through to the second baseman, but Harper’s athleticism has been on full display in the dirt. Much of the credit also goes to infield coach Bobby Dickerson, who worked closely with Harper learning first base after turning Alec Bohm into a serviceable third baseman.
It’s hard to remember a time, if ever, the Phillies had elite defense consistently at first base. For all of Rhys Hoskins’ strengths, no one would ever call him a plus defender. Ditto to Ryan Howard, who notoriously struggled with throws to second to start a double play. Jim Thome was on his way to being a designated hitter by the time he was in Philadelphia. John Kruk was solid yet unspectacular in the field. The closest in recent memory would be Carlos Santana who posted 3 total DRS in 149 games at first for the Phillies in 2018. Harper has already reached that mark in just 18 games this season.
The Phillies infield defense as a whole is still not elite by any means, with the struggles of Trea Turner at shortstop and the much-better-but-still-not-great Bohm at third placing a ceiling on what you could realistically expect. But the right side of the Phillies infield features Gold Glove runner up Bryson Stott at second and early Gold Glove candidate Bryce Harper at first. It just so happens that a Gold Glove is one of the few awards Harper hasn’t yet won in his already illustrious career.