Phillies’ power-bat search: Kris Bryant brings versatility, production — and a steep price tag

Reuniting Bryant and Bryce Harper is a tantalizing thought, but it would be an expensive move that could limit addressing other areas of need.

by Scott Lauber

Published Feb. 7, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET

Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series on middle-of-the-order hitters who will be available to the Phillies in free agency once the MLB lockout ends.

Kris Bryant and Bryce Harper are nine months apart in age and grew up on opposite sides of town in Las Vegas. They got to be friends, even though they were mostly opponents in youth baseball. But for one year, in 2006, they came together on the Southern Nevada Bulldogs, a 14-and-under travel team.

“We won a lot of tournaments,” Bryant told reporters in 2015 before playing against Harper for the first time in the majors. “And a lot of them were because of him.”

Could Bryant join forces with Harper again, this time in Philadelphia?

It’s a tantalizing possibility, frozen in place since Major League Baseball locked out its players on Dec. 2. Imagine Bryant, with his right-handed stroke and 25-to-30-homer power, batting behind the reigning National League MVP in a slugger-friendly ballpark. Phillies fans have daydreamed about it. Team officials have, too, and given the need for a big bat in left field or center, they checked in with Bryant’s camp before the lockout.

Bryant, who turned 30 last month, would bring the added benefit of being able to play third base if Alec Bohm struggles again, or first base if manager Joe Girardi wants to use Rhys Hoskins in the designated-hitter role that is inevitably coming to the NL. Bryant is a former Rookie of the Year (2015) and MVP (2016), a four-time All-Star, and has 185 postseason plate appearances, more than anyone on the Phillies’ roster.

In 15 games at Citizens Bank Park, he is 22-for-61 (.361) with four homers and a 1.074 OPS. Never mind, then, that the heart of a Phillies batting order with Bryant may lean a tad too far to the right, with J.T. Realmuto, Hoskins, and Jean Segura also batting from that side of the plate.

And unlike some other free-agent boppers, notably corner outfielders Nick Castellanos and Michael Conforto (shortstops Carlos Correa and Trevor Story, too), Bryant isn’t attached to compensation as a result of having been traded last season. The Phillies could sign him without losing a second-round draft pick, no small consideration for an organization that is trying to restock its arid farm system.

Bryant is an undeniable fit in just about every area except one: the payroll. And that’s the biggest reason he may wind up elsewhere, barring significant change in either the competitive-balance tax (CBT) structure or owner John Middleton’s philosophy with regard to paying the tax.

Middleton has been willing in recent years to spend up to the CBT threshold but not to surpass it. In 2021, the Phillies were within $629,000 of the $210 million tax bar, according to information provided to teams by the commissioner’s office and obtained in December by the Associated Press.

The Phillies entered the lockout with a $183 million payroll, as calculated for the CBT. The owners are proposing a $214 million threshold for this year and a doubling of the tax penalties; the players want a $245 million threshold and more lenient penalties. With Bryant likely to pull in a five- or six-year contract for at least $25 million per year, the Phillies wouldn’t be able to sign him and address their other needs (center field, bullpen, rotation depth) under the current conditions.

Harper isn’t shy about lobbying the front office to make a move, such as re-signing Realmuto last winter. But even he understands the realities and constraints of a top-heavy payroll.

“Of course, you go into every offseason wanting an opportunity to get a top guy. But we can’t just keep going out and buying and buying and buying,” Harper said at the end of last season. “We just can’t keep going and spending all this money on free agency. You need to have a mold of a team with guys that are making the minimum [salary], guys that are on not-crazy deals that are making a substantial amount of money.”

It doesn’t mean Harper is uninterested in playing with his old pal again.

Bryant and Harper took divergent paths to major league stardom. Harper went to Las Vegas High, left school early to attend a junior college, and got drafted first overall in 2010. Bryant attended Bonanza High, didn’t sign after getting drafted in the 18th round in 2010, and went to the University of San Diego before the Cubs picked him second overall three years later.

But they socialize in the offseason. Their wives are friends. They have the same agent (Scott Boras). When the Phillies played in Chicago last summer, Bryant asked Harper to loan him one of his bats to try out. Bryant reciprocated by sending Harper one of his Louisville Slugger models, and Harper used it for several weeks, even hitting his first career inside-the-park homer with it July 27 against Washington.

A few days later, the rebuilding Cubs sent Bryant to the San Francisco Giants. He hit .262 with seven homers and a .788 on-base plus slugging in 51 games after the trade and started at five positions, including all three outfield spots.

Bryant’s versatility figures to boost his value. Before the lockout, he was linked to the Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Angels, and New York Mets, in addition to the Phillies. The Giants also have interest in bringing him back.

Harper, as much as anyone, understands the attraction, and not only because he once belted a home run to back Bryant’s complete-game one-hitter for the Bulldogs in a 2006 game against a team from California.

“Every time he’s in the postseason he plays well,” Harper said last season. “He’s been there. He’s been in the World Series. He’s a great person. He has a great family. He comes to the yard ready to play. He’s a big right-handed bat that can play multiple positions. He can play right, he can play center, he can play third. He can play anywhere.

“Any team that gets him, they’re going to have a treat. Definitely.”

But fitting Bryant into the budget would be quite the trick by the Phillies.