Will Bryce Harper stay at first base or return to the outfield? The Phillies’ answer should be both.

Two weeks into the season, after the Phillies lost not only Rhys Hoskins but also replacement Darick Hall to long-term injuries, Bryce Harper brought an outside-the-box idea to manager Rob Thomson and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.

He wanted to learn to play first base.

“I thought, ‘Hey, see what they say,’ ” Harper recalled. “And if they tell me to take a hike, I will.”

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Thomson and Dombrowski were intrigued, and well, you know how it turned out. For three months, Harper went to school with coach Bobby Dickerson, while rehabbing his surgically rebuilt right elbow. He made his first base debut in July, started 36 games (plus 13 in the playoffs), and recorded three outs above average, by Statcast’s calculation. There were growing pains, but Harper appeared more natural than novice. If he sticks with it, Dickerson thinks he can someday win a Gold Glove.

And now, seven months after Harper’s original brainstorm, the Phillies are turning the conversation back on him: Does he prefer to stay at first base next season, or return to the outfield?

It seems like a loaded question because of the potential ramifications. If Harper remains at first base, would the door slam on Hoskins’ chance of re-signing with the Phillies as a free agent? If Harper goes back to the outfield, would Nick Castellanos move from right field to left? Where does that leave Brandon Marsh? And Johan Rojas?

“There’s a lot of parts there that are moving,” Dombrowski said.

Not everything hinges on Harper, according to multiple team officials, and Dombrowski was careful to note that the Phillies “don’t want to put it on Bryce.” But with the two-day general managers’ meetings — the table-setter for next month’s winter meetings — set to begin Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz., Dombrowski said he planned to have a “heart-to-heart” with Harper about his positional future.

But what if it isn’t a binary choice? What if Harper doesn’t consider first base and the outfield as an either-or proposition?

Look, maybe Harper really does have a strong preference. But consider what he said two weeks ago, albeit with his mind squarely on the National League Championship Series and not plans for 2024, when asked if he wants to play first base beyond the Phillies’ postseason run:

”With Rhys possibly coming back, whatever happens with that, I expect him to go back to first base and me to go to the outfield and play out there in some capacity. But I don’t mind giving them the option, even if he does come back. If Rhys needs a day off, give them the option to put me at first base and them knowing, ‘Hey, we can put him there at any point and he’ll be fine.’ ”

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Maybe Harper was merely being deferential to Hoskins. He likes and respects the Phillies’ longest-tenured position player, whom he often refers to as the team’s de facto captain. The last thing Harper would do, especially in public, is suggest that his ability to play first base somehow reduces Hoskins’ usefulness on the roster.

But now that it’s Dombrowski and Thomson asking the question, why would Harper’s answer change from what he said last month?

Positional versatility, once limited to the likes of Ben Zobrist, has never been more en vogue in baseball, and few players are more in tune than Harper to the state of the sport and how it’s trending. He sees the big picture as well as small details, so the following surely hasn’t escaped his notice:

“[If] I can move over to first so someone can DH or whatever it is, I’m all about it,” Harper said in May, before he even knew for sure that he could play first base. “It’s just about trying to give us options at any spot and trying to be valuable in all those spots.”

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As he ages, Harper’s greatest value is probably at first base. He’s under contract through 2031, his age-38 season, and has said he wants to play into his 40s. He routinely declares his love for Philadelphia. Within the next few years, perhaps sooner, he will want to discuss a contract extension.

Harper is also on a Hall of Fame track, and winning an MVP at multiple positions would help cement his case. Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial, Robin Yount, and Alex Rodríguez are the only players who have done that.

But Harper turned 31 last month and is still chasing an elusive World Series championship. The motivation for his first-base idea was that he believed it would help the Phillies. In particular, he said he wanted Alec Bohm to concentrate only on playing third base rather than having to shuttle between third and first.

What if, then, Harper can actually enhance his value to the team next season by playing multiple positions?

To wit: The Phillies’ best chance of balancing an offense that chases too many pitches out of the strike zone might be to bring back Hoskins, who is more selective (25.2% career chase rate) than fellow right-handed hitters Castellanos (38.4%), Trea Turner (31.9%), and J.T. Realmuto (33.1%). The Phillies missed Hoskins often, never more than in the NLCS, when the Diamondbacks exploited their aggressiveness.

But Hoskins is a below-average defender, and Kyle Schwarber is better suited as a DH than a left fielder. Harper could help mitigate those shortcomings.

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If Harper started, say, 108 games in the outfield and 54 at first base, Hoskins could start 108 games at first base and 54 at DH, and Schwarber 108 games at DH and 54 in left field. Marsh would move back to center, either on an everyday basis or in a timeshare with a right-handed hitter, presumably Rojas or Cristian Pache.

Thomson said he was “pleasantly surprised” by Harper’s defense at first base and sounded open to having him reprise that role. And he’s hardly the only team official who feels that way.

But that doesn’t mean it has to be Harper’s only role.