00:00A couple of days ago, Jack, the Philadelphia Phillies, reported to camp, and they did, in fact, get the very
00:06latest from Bryce Harper this offseason.
00:08Some comments were made by the president of baseball operations of the Philadelphia Phillies, Bryce Harper, essentially needing to, I
00:16don't know, become elite again.
00:17I guess that was like sort of the comment there. Harper was seen working out in a shirt that basically
00:23said something about being elite or not.
00:26He took it personally, obviously. He said all the right things, I thought, to the media, but let's play some
00:31of those comments back for you, and then we'll get your thoughts.
00:33I mean, I don't get motivated by that kind of stuff. You know, for me, it was kind of wild,
00:38the whole situation of that happening.
00:41I think the big thing for me was, you know, when we first met with this organization, it was, hey,
00:47you know, we're always going to keep things in-house, and we expect you to do the same thing.
00:51And so, you know, when that didn't happen, it kind of took me for a run a little bit.
00:56So, I don't know. You know, it's part of it, I guess.
01:00You know, it's kind of a wild situation, you know, that even happening.
01:03Obviously, I didn't have the year that I wanted. Obviously, I didn't have the postseason I wanted.
01:07My numbers weren't where they needed to be.
01:10I know that, and, you know, I don't need to be motivated to be great, you know, in my career
01:15or anything else.
01:16So, that's just not a motivating factor for me.
01:19You know, for Dave to come out and say those things, it's kind of wild to me still.
01:26It was a little strange, Jack, and I would also add this.
01:29A little weird offseason for Philadelphia with the Castellanos stuff back and forth, the Harper stuff.
01:34They waited a while to sign JT Romudo.
01:37They've got Zach Wheeler coming back from injury.
01:40As they say, I'm not sure where the vibes are right now in Clearwater with the Phillies.
01:45What do you make of all this?
01:46Yeah, it's weird because the vibes have always been good in Philadelphia.
01:49I think over the last couple of years, it seemed like they had a bunch of people that gelled together
01:54in a solid way.
01:55And, you know, it just seemed like they had a lot of like-minded individuals in that clubhouse, and they
01:59were working towards a common goal.
02:01But, you know, for full context of that, it kind of started in November or so when Dave Dombrowski was
02:06doing his, you know, end-of-season availability, or it might have been shortly thereafter that.
02:10And he said he wasn't sure if Harper was ever going to reach his elite caliber of play again.
02:15And that's an interesting thing to say from a lead decision-maker about a possible future Hall of Famer, and
02:20at this point, likely future Hall of Famer in Bryce Harper.
02:23But, you know, Harper taking it personally to the point where he wore a T-shirt and then saying that
02:28those things don't motivate him, I thought was a little weird.
02:31So that just means that it's pure anger that is associated with this.
02:35So I don't know.
02:36It's interesting.
02:37I thought it was really important for them to retain Schwarber, and they did because Kyle Schwarber has been kind
02:42of the quarterback of that clubhouse.
02:43Like, he's always been a leader.
02:45He's always kind of set the tone.
02:46But you have sort of a changing of the guard here.
02:49I also think Philly is just entering a weird point where they had to ditch the Castellanos contract a little
02:55bit earlier than they were anticipating.
02:57They've got a lot of guys on the other side of 30.
03:00JT Real Muto was on the other side of 30 years old, on the older side of 30 years old,
03:04and they brought him back on a three-year deal.
03:06So Philly is one of those interesting teams for me where it could be a bit closer to the window
03:11closing
03:12than I think a lot of people around the league would initially anticipate.
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