Checking in on the Bryce Harper first base experiment: Are his days as a right fielder nearing an end?

Every other day, Bryce Harper picks up a first baseman’s mitt with his last name stitched on the side and plays catch. The routine began three weeks ago, with 30 throws from 60 feet. He progressed last week to 75 feet. Before long, he will move out to 90 feet, then 120, with gradual upticks in volume and intensity.

“Just with how violent I am when I throw, I think we really need to build up to it,” said the face of the Phillies, seated at his locker before a game the other day. “Just need to understand that it is going to take me a minute to get back, throwing-wise.”

Fair enough. But if we learned anything from Harper’s eyeblink-fast return to the lineup after an elbow ligament reconstruction in his throwing arm — 160 days from the operating table to designated hitting at Dodger Stadium — it’s that conventional timelines don’t apply to him. If most non-pitchers tend not to play a defensive position for seven or eight months after Tommy John surgery, it’s probably safe to bet the under on Harper.

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The pertinent question, then, isn’t when Harper will field a position but rather which position will he occupy. And if the answer is first base, as most signs indicate, will it be only temporary? Or are Harper’s days as a right fielder nearing an end as he enters the second half of his career?

It’s a loaded subject. Because Rhys Hoskins, out for the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in spring training and having surgery on opening day, will be eligible for free agency in the offseason. He’s homegrown, popular among teammates, and universally respected.

Harper refers to Hoskins as the Phillies’ de facto captain. It would be inelegant, then, for him to publicly discuss a long-term future at first base, even if team officials surely have thought about every roster scenario beyond 2023.

“Rhys has been our guy; he’s still our guy right now,” Harper said. “I think [first base] will be a question in the next couple years, maybe.”

For now, Harper is focused on playing first base later this season. He brought the idea to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski two weeks into the season, after backup first baseman Darick Hall had thumb surgery. Hall is expected to return, just not for a while, prompting the Phillies to move Alec Bohm across the infield to first base.

It wasn’t ideal. Bohm has worked hard to become a passable third baseman, and the Phillies didn’t want to disrupt his progress. So, Harper came up with a potential solution: If he’s able to play first, Bohm can go back to his natural position. Maybe it would even enable Harper to return to the field sooner than if he played right field, where the throws are longer and more strenuous.

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“I want to keep Bohmer so normalized at third base for his confidence and his mind,” Harper said. “I’m not saying he can’t [move between positions]. He can do it. But it gives them that simplicity of like, ‘OK, Bohmer’s our third baseman, Trea [Turner] is our shortstop, Bryson [Stott] is at second.’ I just want to help this team win. Wherever that is on the field, I’ll be out there whenever that is.”

And one month after Harper sold Dombrowski on letting him try it, the Phillies’ leading infield instructor has reason to believe that the Great First Base Experiment might actually work.

“He’s passing with flying colors,” Bobby Dickerson said. “He looks real good.”

Dickerson, 57, is regarded among the best infield coaches in baseball. In spring training, he camps on a half-field adjacent to the Phillies clubhouse, fungo bat in hand and a shopping cart filled with baseballs by his side, and hits grounders for as long as players want to field them. Most are drawn to his enthusiasm, which comes through in a blend of encouragement and trash talk, all slathered in a Mississippi drawl.

Even Harper took an interest, long before he thought about playing first base.

“All the way back to ‘19, he would sneak out to the half-field and take grounders,” Dickerson said. “Even before this thing, he would be out there some mornings. I’d see the movements, I’d see his hands are good.”

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Harper grew up playing third base and catcher. The Nationals drafted him first overall in 2010 and moved him to the outfield, and he hasn’t played another position since, save for a cameo at first base in a five-man infield for the last batter of a game in 2018 and another in 2021.

But Harper also never let go of his positional roots. He pestered then-Phillies manager Joe Girardi into letting him play third base in an intrasquad scrimmage before the shortened 2020 season. Girardi relented for one inning with the caveat that Harper didn’t dive.

“At any point when you grow up playing certain positions, you miss it a little bit here and there,” Harper said.

Harper and Dickerson had their first session at first base on April 11. They have worked on nuances of the position — reading hops on the forehand and backhand, footwork around the base, scooping throws in the dirt, holding runners — almost every day since then.

Mastering the footwork will be the biggest challenge, according to Harper, especially once he’s moving at game speed. Some of it, such as knowing how far to range to the right in pursuit of a ball in the hole, is instinctive. For most players, it gets easier with repetition.

There’s also the adjustment to standing much closer to the batter. When the first baseman is holding on a runner, he’s only 90 feet from home plate, with considerably less time to react to a batted ball.

“You’re the first line of defense,” Dickerson said. “Everything’s happening a little quicker. And there’s a fine line between playing fast and playing chaotic. You can see he catches on to things quickly. He’s picking hops great over there. He’s started adding little picks in the dirt. He looks really calm and collected over there right now.

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“But it’s just practice. It’s going to take time in games. And there will be some pimples and hiccups that happen once the games start. It’s a tall task, but I think he’s very capable.”

Not everyone can do it. After getting traded to the Red Sox at the deadline in 2021, Kyle Schwarber was three defensive runs saved below average in 10 games at first base. In a divisional round playoff game, he overthrew a routine underhand toss to the pitcher, then derisively pumped his fist and tipped his cap to the crowd at Fenway Park when he made the play a few innings later.

“It’s definitely not easy changing positions,” Schwarber said. “I think everyone saw that when I was playing in Boston, trying to play first base. That [stunk]. So, yeah, it’s pretty hard.”

But Harper also wouldn’t be the first superstar to successfully change positions midway through his career. Pete Rose went from second base to the outfield, then to third base and eventually to first. Craig Biggio went from catcher to second base, with some outfield mixed in. Robin Yount made a mid-career switch from shortstop to center field.

“I don’t really want to talk about myself at first base yet,” Harper said, chuckling, “so when Dicky sees this, he doesn’t think I think I’m great over there.”

All along, the Phillies’ priority was getting Harper’s bat back in the lineup. His impact was immediate. Entering play Friday in Colorado, he was 9-for-28 (.321) with four walks, one homer, and an .871 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

“I’m happy with where I am,” Harper said. “I was really happy with the left-center swing the other day. [On Tuesday], I was a little jumpy. It’s going to come, it’s going to go. I just need to understand that it’s going to take a minute to understand my swing every single day.”

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In time, the Phillies will benefit even more from putting Harper at a defensive position. For one thing, Schwarber, who hasn’t moved well in left field, can be the DH in more spacious outfields. This week’s road trip to Coors Field and cavernous Oracle Park in San Francisco will be particularly challenging.

But the Phillies also won’t jeopardize the health of Harper’s elbow by getting overly aggressive with his throwing program, either.

Dickerson can’t recall working with an infielder who was coming back from Tommy John surgery. Although the throws are shorter and perhaps less frequent from first base than right field, Harper will need to be able to execute cutoffs and relays, in addition to throwing to bases.

So far, he has only played catch.

“You don’t want to rush that and then something happens and I blow my arm, right?” Harper said. “I think we’re still progressing in that.”

So, the throwing progression will continue, along with the workouts at first base. Eventually — and with Harper, it likely will be sooner than expected — the Phillies will know if he’s viable at first base, now and in the future.

“If I can help in the infield when someone needs a day off or something like and I have to move over to first so someone can DH, or whatever it is, I’m all about it,” Harper said. “Just trying to give us options at any spot and trying to kind of be valuable in all those spots.”

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