{"id":114023,"date":"2025-10-25T08:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T08:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=114023"},"modified":"2025-10-25T08:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T08:42:11","slug":"%f0%9f%94%a5bronx-buzzkill-scott-boras-just-poured-ice-on-the-hottest-rumor-in-baseball-the-yankees-dream-of-a-harper-blockbuster-fizzled-before-it-even-sparked-now-the-question-echoes-thr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=114023","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udd25BRONX BUZZKILL: Scott Boras just poured ice on the hottest rumor in baseball. The Yankees\u2019 dream of a Harper blockbuster fizzled before it even sparked. Now the question echoes through the league\u2014was this a negotiation tactic, or the end of the fantasy?..ll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_83,w_4057,h_2282\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/GettyImages\/mmsport\/43\/01k86kp2v4e5cg0791gk.jpg\" alt=\"New York Yankees v Philadelphia Phillies\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The New York Yankees have always felt like a good match for Bryce Harper. The Yankees infamously failed to pursue Harper when he was a free agent during the 2018-19 offseason, an obvious mistake that fans were reminded of recently (and painfully) as Harper expressed his admiration for Derek Jeter and the Yankees\u2019 culture.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\">Ever since Harper first donned a Philadelphia Phillies uniform, he\u2019s felt destined to end his career wearing one, although comments last week from Phillies GM Dave Dombrowski made fans second-guess that inevitable outcome for a moment.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\">Speaking on Harper\u2019s 2025 season in a season post-mortem presser, Dombrowski basically said that Harper wasn\u2019t elite this year, and that it remains to be seen whether or not he will be ever again.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<blockquote>\n<div dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>Bryce Harper wasn\u2019t an elite MLB hitter in 2025? Was it a down year or the start of a decline at age 33?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan he rise to the next level again? I don\u2019t really know that answer. He\u2019s the one that will dictate that more than anything else.\u201d -Dave Dombrowski pic.twitter.com\/Pj8AR2cED8<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/ToNewbyginnings\/status\/1978879669958062132?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\">Dombrowski\u2019s comments weren\u2019t outrageous, nor did he indicate that Harper wouldn\u2019t be a member of the Phillies moving forward, but not surprisingly, social media \u2014 and even some legitimate MLB analysts \u2014 took Dombrowski\u2019s words and ran with them in all different directions.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\">Joel Sherman of <em>The New York Post <\/em>declared that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t be shocked\u201d if Harper is traded, prompting a serious discussion about whether Harper to the Yankees is viable. Brian Cashman messed up not pursuing Harper harder during the 2019 offseason. Was a mulligan on the horizon?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\">Before Yankees fans get too carried away, however, they should take note of new comments from Harper\u2019s agent, Scott Boras.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-7\">New Scott Boras comments make Bryce Harper-Yankees rumors look silly<\/h2>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\">\u201cI don\u2019t think Dave (Dombrowski) or John (Middleton) or anybody is contemplating Bryce Harper not being a Philadelphia Phillie for the rest of his career,\u201d Boras said in response to Dombrowski&#8217;s remarks (per Christian Red).<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\">\u201cI agree that (Harper) missed time due to injury and that his volume was down, but other than that, Bryce Harper is performing at an elite level on a number of characteristics that we keep track of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\">\u201cWhen you look into expected baseball stats \u2013 Harper is pretty much on par with his career averages,\u201d Boras continued. \u201cHe\u2019s surrounded by (Kyle) Tucker, (Fernando) Tatis (Jr.), (Bobby) Witt (Jr.), and (Rafael) Devers. His barrel rate, hard hit rate, exit velocity, are all in the top of MLB. His barrel rate is the same as Vladdy (Guerrero) Jr. and Witt Jr. His exit velocity is the same as Cal Raleigh\u2019s and Julio Rodriguez\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\">With Boras\u2019s comments out in the open, some critics pointed out that Boras wasn\u2019t being completely transparent about Harper\u2019s stats.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<blockquote>\n<div dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>Worthing noting his barrel rate and exit velo were 54th and 49th, respectively, this year.<\/p>\n<p>Boras is using career averages to obfuscate the obvious, for better or worse.<\/p>\n<p>The other guys he mentioned were all top 20 ish in most of those.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/KyleScottL\/status\/1980713418660213209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\">Nonetheless, Boras\u2019s point remains \u2014 Harper leaving Philadelphia is highly unlikely, and nothing (including Dombrowski&#8217;s press conference) has transpired to suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\">Amid what promises to be a slow offseason for the Yankees and for MLB, in general, there will surely be a handful of unrealistic narratives floated out into the airwaves to get the rumor mill churning. Still, it\u2019s important to separate the likely from the unlikely, and the unlikely from the completely implausible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Yankees have always felt like a good match for Bryce Harper. The Yankees infamously failed to pursue Harper when he was a free agent during the 201<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":114025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\ud83d\udd25BRONX BUZZKILL: Scott Boras just poured ice on the hottest rumor in baseball. The Yankees\u2019 dream of a Harper blockbuster fizzled before it even sparked. Now the question echoes through the league\u2014was this a negotiation tactic, or the end of the fantasy?..ll - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=114023\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\ud83d\udd25BRONX BUZZKILL: Scott Boras just poured ice on the hottest rumor in baseball. The Yankees\u2019 dream of a Harper blockbuster fizzled before it even sparked. Now the question echoes through the league\u2014was this a negotiation tactic, or the end of the fantasy?..ll - News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Yankees have always felt like a good match for Bryce Harper. The Yankees infamously failed to pursue Harper when he was a free agent during the 201\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=114023\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-25T08:42:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/LUU-141.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrLuu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrLuu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=114023\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=114023\",\"name\":\"\ud83d\udd25BRONX BUZZKILL: Scott Boras just poured ice on the hottest rumor in baseball. 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