Bryce Harper knows the Phillies’ time is now. But he also believes their window isn’t close to shutting.

Bryce Harper didn’t pick a high-end Italian restaurant in a casino on the Las Vegas Strip for dinner with John Middleton five years ago because he felt like basking in breathtaking views.

Windows mattered little to Harper then. He insists it’s the same now.

“People talk about windows [to contend] and things like that,” the Face of the Phillies said. “But with John at the helm, there’s no windows. This is a team that’s going to play for a long time and be competitive for a long time.”

» READ MORE: The Phillies can check off winning the NL East for the first time since 2011. Next? ‘We want to finish this.’

It was late Monday night, about an hour or so after the Phillies clinched their first National League East title in 13 years. Harper, wet and sticky from a clubhouse rager, pulled on a red “We Own The East” T-shirt and returned to the field to see his wife and their three small children.

Six seasons into his record-setting 13-year, $330 million contract, it’s a neat narrative that everything worked out as Harper planned. The Phillies have improved each full season, from 81 wins in 2019 to 82, 87, 90, and 93-and-counting. They grabbed the last NL playoff spot in 2022 to end a decadelong postseason absence, the top wild card last year, and now, they wear the division crown.

But if team officials are being honest, the Phillies weren’t ready to win when they wooed Harper. The proverbial window wasn’t really open yet, even if they tricked themselves into thinking it was. Harper knew as much. In his introductory news conference atop the first-base dugout in Clearwater, Fla., he preached patience.

Yet he came here anyway. Because Middleton, at that Feb. 22, 2019, dinner and again over lunch the next day made a promise: If Harper signed with the Phillies, Middleton would never stop going for it.

And he hasn’t, taking the payroll to franchise-record heights by wading back into free agency for Zack Wheeler, J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, and Trea Turner before re-signing Aaron Nola last November.

“I just believed him,” Harper said earlier this season. “You could tell by the way he talked that he meant what he said.”

So does Harper, then, when he brushes off the popular notion that it’s a World Series-or-bust season. The first part is undeniable. The Phillies have told us, with their words and actions, that anything less than a parade down Broad Street would be a failure after the near-misses of the last two postseasons.

» READ MORE: Phillies prepare for third straight postseason run: ‘This is the standard’ for this team now

But the bust part? Harper doesn’t see it that way.

“Obviously, we have a really good team right now,” he said. “This is our window with this team right now. We’re going to try to do everything we can to take this thing down to the end and play meaningful games into October and November, and hopefully, we’ll see what happens.”

Sure, and much of the Phillies’ core is locked up after even next season. But take a closer look at the roster. Wheeler is 34; Realmuto 33; Castellanos 32; Turner, Schwarber, and Nola 31. Even Harper, seemingly ageless, given how long he has been in our lives as a superstar major leaguer, will turn 32 next month.

They aren’t old. But they aren’t getting younger, either.

Harper acknowledged the degree of difficulty in winning a division title, especially with the way the Braves owned the NL East for the last six years. In some ways, reigning supreme after the 162-game grind is a greater achievement than emerging on top after a four-week playoff sprint. Surely it’s more of an endurance test.

But Harper pivoted swiftly to the next goal: locking up a bye in the wild-card round. Because he understands as well as anyone the importance of sidestepping the randomness of a three-game series that can be rife with upsets.

Also, he could use a rest.

Last month, Harper revealed to MLB.com that he has played for months with an irritated right elbow and sore wrist. He doesn’t love discussing it because he isn’t an excuse-maker. But it probably does explain his eight homers since the All-Star break (compared to 21 in the first half). If his elbow is tender, maybe he can’t get as much extension on his swings.

“I feel like it’s getting better,” said Harper, whose elbow tends to sting more when he swings and misses. “I feel like my swings are ... OK. Everybody goes through bumps and bruises throughout the season.”

Would it help to have five days off between the end of the season and the beginning of the divisional round?

“I think the bye’s going to help a lot of our team,” Harper said. “A lot of guys are kind of grinding through, right now, a lot of stuff. Getting that reset and hitting the pause for a minute — obviously, we’ve still got to stay in shape and do the things we can. We’ll see what happens.”

Nothing is guaranteed. The Phillies and Dodgers, who looked like the class of the league early in the season, are flawed; the Padres and Mets, amid second-half surges, have warts, too. Nobody is betting on the surprising Brewers. The Diamondbacks are back in the wild-card mix and better than last year, when they sneaked in with 84 wins and won the pennant.

Harper knows the Phillies’ time is now. He feels the urgency. But no matter what happens, he doesn’t believe their time is close to being up.

» READ MORE: How the Phillies’ path to a World Series is shaping up in a wide open National League playoff field

“We have our three studs at the top — Wheels and Noles, and Ranger [Suárez] have done a great job in the last two years — and we have a really good lineup,” Harper said. “I think we’re built for meaningful games in October. We have a really good team. We have a really good shot.”

And the window is as wide open as it may ever get.