On the eve of the 2022 World Series, the original Mr. October stood on the field in Houston and considered the possibility that someone new was laying claim to his title.
“I know Bryce Harper is a good player,” Reggie Jackson said, “Mr. October” stitched in cursive on the back of his navy blue Astros cap, “and I think he’s moved himself up a notch. But it won’t matter if it stops. … You’ve got to finish.”
Harper didn’t finish. Not then, and not since.
Maybe this will finally be the year?
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Hold that thought.
The Phillies will open the division series at home Saturday against the Dodgers or Reds. It will be Harper’s eighth postseason, his fourth in a row with the Phillies. Not every superstar thrives in the playoffs. Aaron Judge, for example, dragged a .205 average and a .768 OPS into the Yankees’ wild-card series Tuesday night.
But Harper is among the biggest big-game players in the sport. In 53 postseason games, he has hit 17 home runs. He has a 1.016 OPS, second among 64 active players with at least 100 plate appearances in the playoffs.
There’s only one thing missing.
“We had two really good opportunities to win a World Series,” Harper said recently. “I would say three because [of 2022], as well. We had a great chance to win that year, too. I think everybody should be hungry in this room. Everybody should be ready to go.”
Harper has felt that way for, oh, about 356 days — and yes, he might’ve actually counted. The Phillies were vanquished in the divisional round on Oct. 9 last year, and ever since, all that’s mattered is getting back.
It took 150 games to nail down a playoff spot and only one more to win the National League East. Harper had a good season — 32 doubles, 27 homers, .844 OPS, 29% more production than league average — but not great by his standards. He missed 23 games in June with an inflamed right wrist. Upon his return, he started 75 of 78 games and slugged .517 with an .866 OPS and 18 homers.
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But there wasn’t a thing Harper could have done in the regular season to supersede getting back to this moment in his favorite month on the calendar, even if it has broken his heart in the past.
Harper was a 19-year-old rookie in 2012 when he became the second-youngest player to homer in the postseason. But the Nationals blew a six-run lead at home in Game 5 of the division series. They lost in the divisional round in 2014, 2016, and 2017, too.
In the 2022 playoffs, Harper batted .349 with six homers, including the pennant-clincher, but the Phillies lost in Game 6 of the World Series. They got eliminated one round earlier in each of the last two postseasons, even though Harper hit five homers with a 1.097 OPS in 2023 and went 4-for-12 with two doubles and a homer last year against the Mets.
Is there a lesson in the postseason losses?
“Just that we have to not really worry about a matchup and go in and play our game,” Harper said. “Understanding timely hitting is huge, bullpen is huge, having depth in our team is huge. All of it. Things [have] got to go right. When teams get hot in baseball — same thing with hockey — a team can get hot and it’s like, ‘Whoa. Watch out for them.’ But we have to win the games that we need to and not let those ones fall through the cracks. Everything else will take care of itself.“
Teammates maintain there isn’t anything outwardly different about Harper in the postseason. Maybe his focus is sharper. Maybe his intensity is greater.
Mostly, though, he stays the same, which probably explains why he’s rarely overwhelmed when the stakes get higher.
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“He kind of just flips that switch,” said second baseman Bryson Stott, who has known Harper since they were growing up in Las Vegas. “He wants to be up with two outs and the bases loaded. He wants that. I think he gets joy out of that. And that’s what you want from your superstars.”
As president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski put it, “There are some guys that just cherish those moments. Not that they’re not always focused, but they take it to another level and nothing really fazes them. It’s like in some ways you don’t hear the crowd because you’re so focused on what’s taking place. I think that’s Bryce.”
But superstars can’t affect the outcome in baseball as much as other sports. A great scorer can dominate a basketball game, just as an elite quarterback can dictate the results all the way to a Super Bowl. In baseball, the best player can bat only once each time through the order.
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Still, Harper’s legacy will be defined, in part, by how many World Series his teams win. Reggie won four. It’s what made him Mr. October.
The Phillies worked out for about 90 minutes Tuesday, as they try to avoid rust during a wild-card-round bye. Harper’s father, Ron, was on the field, watching from behind the batting cage alongside hitting coach Kevin Long.
Ron Harper was here for the pennant-clinching home run in 2022, too. In the din of the celebration that night, he said, “It might be the best thing I’ve ever seen.”
Three years later, it’s time for Harper to make some more October memories.