Dave Dombrowski: Phillies won’t move Bryce Harper back to the outfield

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — First things first: Bryce Harper will stay at first base.

The Phillies may seek creative solutions to enhance their lineup. But one idea that isn’t on the table, according to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, is returning Harper to the outfield after he was a Gold Glove finalist in his first full season at first base.

“I don’t think so,” Dombrowski said Wednesday at the general managers’ meetings. “He said last year he’d go back to the outfield, but that’s not a preference. I don’t think we would do it now.”

» READ MORE: Agent Scott Boras makes a familiar pitch with Juan Soto. We’ll see if the Phillies truly join the pursuit.

Harper played the outfield for the first 11 seasons of his major league career before tearing a ligament in his right elbow in 2022 and undergoing Tommy John surgery. When the Phillies lost Rhys Hoskins to a season-ending knee injury last year, Harper volunteered to move to first base once he was cleared to throw.

This season, in his first full year at his new position, Harper ranked third among all first basemen in outs above average (eight) and tied for fifth in defensive runs saved (five).

The Phillies scored the fifth-most runs in baseball last season but were prone to team-wide outages because of the tendency of many of their hitters to swing at pitches out of the strike zone. They are attempting to make the lineup less homogenous, and Dombrowski said this week that left field or center field are the “obvious” areas to add a player.

Juan Soto is the top free agent on the market but is expected to command at least $500 million, likely more. Beyond Soto, the free-agent options include Teoscar Hernández, Anthony Santander, Jurickson Profar, Tyler O’Neill, and Alex Verdugo. Hernández and Santander hit 33 and 44 homers last season, respectively, but neither is known for plate discipline.

Meanwhile, the free-agent market at first base is headlined by Pete Alonso and Christian Walker, right-handed hitters with more command of the strike zone. Paul Goldschmidt, the 2022 National League MVP, is a buy-low candidate at age 37 and coming off an uncharacteristically poor season.

» READ MORE: An upgrade in the Phillies outfield is an ‘obvious way’ they can improve, Dave Dombrowski says

But the Phillies aren’t inclined to clear a spot for them by moving Harper.

“I can’t say we’d never do it,” Dombrowski said, “but that’s not something that we’re thinking of or want him to do now that he’s moved there, at this stage of his career, how he’s adjusted to the position.”

Center fielder Johan Rojas will play winter ball in the Dominican Republic to work on adjustments that he has been making at the Phillies’ complex in Clearwater, Fla., with assistant hitting coach Rafael Pena. ... Top prospect Andrew Painter is scheduled to make at least one more start in the Arizona Fall League. Fifteen months removed from elbow surgery, the 21-year-old righty has allowed three runs and struck out 12 batters in 13 innings for a 2.08 ERA over five starts.