As Bryce Harper braces for a new position, a former Phillies player weighs in: ‘First base is not easy’

Few outfielders have made the move to first base while they were still in the prime of their careers. Von Hayes did it in 1986 and recalled his experience.

Bryce Harper is on the verge of making his first start at first base for the Phillies.Read moreYong Kim / Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Scott Lauber

Published July 19, 2023, 12:03 p.m. ET

Any day now, the Phillies will post a lineup that has this notation: “HARPER 3″ — as in the position, not the jersey number. And with that, Bryce Harper will become the rare star outfielder to move to first base while still in the prime of his career.

There haven’t been many. Stan Musial did it briefly in his mid-20s. Carl Yastrzemski was 33 and still an All-Star when he made the switch. Adam Dunn went from the outfield to first base at age 30; Lance Berkman was 29.

Von Hayes remembers when the Phillies asked him to go from the grass to the dirt. They traded for outfielders Milt Thompson and Gary Redus in the 1985-86 offseason and moved Mike Schmidt back to third base after a season at first. Hayes, an outfielder for the first five years of his major league career, got a call from manager John Felske, who relayed the team’s plan to move him to first base for his age-27 season.

“I knew in my heart it wasn’t going to be a major transition,” Hayes said by phone from his home in Iowa. “I played a little first base [at St. Mary’s College of California] my junior year, so there was some experience. But what really helped me out was we made that transition in the offseason, so I got the chance to go to spring training and get on those back fields and reacclimate myself with the position.”

Harper-to-first-base was less a scripted play than an audible at the line of scrimmage. Rhys Hoskins was lost to a season-ending knee injury late in spring training and fill-in Darick Hall to thumb surgery in April. Harper had not yet completed his warp-speed return from an offseason elbow ligament reconstruction when he approached president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and manager Rob Thomson about learning to play first base.

Three months later, after near-daily tutoring sessions with infield coach Bobby Dickerson and finally being cleared to throw to bases a few weeks ago, Harper’s first start at first base is nigh. Although he has played first for all of two batters in his career, team officials are betting on him being good at it because, well, it’s Harper.

Hayes doesn’t doubt Harper will do fine. But take it from someone who has done it: There will be a learning curve.

‘First base is not easy’

“There’s certainly a transition and the idiosyncrasies that go along with any position,” Hayes said. “People think that you can just put somebody over there and all they’ve got to do is catch the ball. First base is not easy.”

For one thing, Harper must become familiar with the way each infielder throws. Hayes recalled that Schmidt’s throws were “dead straight.” But others were less reliable, chucking sinkers in the dirt, fluttering knuckleballs, or sidearm spinners.

“I had three guys that threw the ball differently across the diamond,” Hayes said. “The main thing is to get into a rhythm when you’re stepping toward where that ball is going to end up and catching it with your foot on the bag. Because if you step too early and you plant that front foot and the ball tails on you, you’re going to come off the bag or fall down and not be in a good, athletic position to complete the play.”

There are other challenges. Hayes noted throws to second base when the runner is in the first baseman’s line of vision. Picking throws out of the dirt is an acquired skill. Hayes said he was taught “to backhand everything, which means you line your body up with a bad throw and trust that you can backhand-pick the ball.”

And if you miss it?

“It’s going to hit you in the face,” Hayes said.

But Hayes found that the toughest plays were judging when to range for a ground ball in the hole between first and second.

“If you’ve got to take more than one step to your right, nobody’s going to be covering first,” Hayes said. “Sometimes there’s no answer. It’s a base hit, and there’s nothing you can do. That’s a hard play.”

Phillies left fielder Kyle Schwarber started 18 games at first base, including nine in the postseason, for the Red Sox in 2021. By his admission, it was an adventure. Among his biggest adjustments: standing so close to the batter. The proximity to home plate caused Schwarber to feel rushed whenever a ball was hit in his direction.

“It’s trying to be able to slow things down,” he said. “That’s going to be the thing for Harp. I see him and Bobby working all the time, and Bobby’s giving him all the right pointers and doing everything right. It’s just going out there and doing it in the game. The more reps you get, the better you’ll get.

“You definitely have a lot of appreciation for what he’s going to do when he does step over there. It’s really cool to see it. Because it’s not an easy position. It’s hard. God, it was hard.”

Harper sold the Phillies on a few potential advantages to moving to first base. In addition to bringing stability to the position — and putting an end to the yo-yoing of Alec Bohm between first and third — it would free up the DH spot for Schwarber, who has struggled in left field.

Out of left field

But couldn’t Harper just play left field, where the throws are shorter than from right?

Not yet, according to team officials. Harper is eight months removed from elbow surgery, and although the throws from left field are less intense, they’re still longer — and more frequent and unpredictable — than throws from first base.

“I never hurt my arm playing the infield, but I hurt my arm a few times playing the outfield,” Hayes said. “It’s a different throw. When I came into the infield, there was no throw that was really going to bother me, as far as from a physical standpoint. It definitely takes less toll on your body playing first base.”

Hayes played primarily first base for three seasons before moving back to the outfield in 1989. John Kruk played both positions, off and on, throughout his career.

The Phillies haven’t discussed Harper’s position beyond this season. Dombrowski said he thinks Harper will move back to the outfield “eventually,” though probably not this season. But if he’s able to play first for at least half of the remaining 68 games, it would give them more lineup flexibility and may enable them to target left field as a spot to add a right-handed hitter with power before the Aug. 1 trade deadline.

Everyone will be watching, including Hayes.

“Bryce is an athlete,” Hayes said. “Obviously he’s got great feet. If you have good feet and your feet are moving, he’s always going to be in a position where he’s going to be able to catch the ball.”