Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies will be managed by former Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly in the 2027 season. Having taken over on an interim basis last season, the Phillies made Mattingly their full-time manager on a two-year deal in October, after his 79-55 interim run helped the team turn their early season slump around and qualify for the postseason.
Making the job his own is another matter, and one Phillies insider knows where it starts. Jim Salisbury, the longtime Phillies reporter, said Mattingly’s plan to change how the club plays only works if the player who sets the tone is on board.
Mattingly has said the 2026 team “really wasn’t my team,” that it belonged to Rob Thomson, and that he wants to do things differently. If his plans are to come to fruition, however, Salisbury thinks Bryce Harper will have to be fully on board with Mattingly’s way of doing things.
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“If that stuff is going to work, he needs [the players’ buy-in],” Salisbury said. “He’ll get the buy-in of Kyle Schwarber. He’ll get the buy-in of J.T. Realmuto. But the guy he really needs the buy-in from is Bryce Harper.
“Harper, in a lot of ways, sets the tone on the field with his energy and his play. He needs Harper’s buy-in from day one of camp. That will go a long way.”
Schwarber is signed through 2030 and Realmuto through 2028, so both have a stake in what Mattingly builds. Harper’s 13-year, $330 million contract runs to 2031; Salisbury’s point is about whose voice carries, not what the deals say.
“He’s going to be making a speech at Cooperstown” – MLB analyst predicts Bryce Harper to make it into the Hall of Fame
Paul Hembekides, an ESPN analyst, made the long-view case for the two-time NL MVP in a conversation with Buster Olney, and it rests on the same trait Salisbury describes: a star willing to rebuild himself.
“You don’t reach the Hall of Fame by debuting at 19, winning an MVP at 22 or another later in your 20s,” Hembekides said. “You reach the Hall of Fame by doing this.
“By reinventing yourself when you have to, when the league requires to, and that’s why Harper’s going to be making a speech in Cooperstown five years after he hangs up the spikes.”
That is the version of Bryce Harper Mattingly needs in Clearwater: not the teenage phenom, but a 34-year-old hitter still adjusting, with a work stoppage expected in December. The buy-in Salisbury describes tends to follow that example.
Edited by Raghav Mehta
