Phillies' Bryce Harper could return by All-Star break - MLB

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper joined his teammates at spring training and hasn’t ruled out being back by the All-Star break following Tommy John surgery.

“Things can change either way,” the two-time National League MVP Harper said Thursday. “I could be after, I could be before. But as right now that’s the date we kind of solidified. We’re not going to rush. We’re going to be smart about it.”

Dressed in red Phillies shorts with pinstripes and a white workout shirt, Harper sat on top of a picnic table outside the clubhouse.

“Just excited to be back out here, some sunshine and some warm weather,” Harper said. “Just really excited to be around the team again.”

Harper was hurt in April and last played right field on April 16 in Miami. He had surgery in November.

“Once I was done with surgery I took the time off that I needed to let it heal,” Harper said. “It’s still healing right now, still evolving. Just trying to see how I feel each day and go from there.”

Entering the fifth season of a $330 million, 13-year contract, Harper is currently taking swings with a bat but not facing pitches.

“I’ve never dealt with anything like an elbow, so definitely it’s different waters for me,” Harper said. “Just trying to take it day by day.”

Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said Harper is making progress and added hitting off a tee on Thursday. Harper will hit every other day for the time being.

Thomson added that Harper probably won’t take batting practice before spring training ends.

“You’ve got a lot of steps to go through,” Thomson said. “It’s just how he progresses through this, his stages. We’re going to take it slow with him. Obviously, he’s a great player and we want him back 100%.”

Harper had a platelet-rich plasma injection on his elbow in May and became a full-time designated hitter to finish the season, helping lead the Phillies to their first World Series since 2009. They lost to Houston in six games.

“We’re thankful for the DH, again,” Harper said with a smile. “I was so against it, right? But I’m all about it, and I love during it, too.”

Harper will DH when he returns, It is expected to be awhile before he starts a throwing program.

“Of course, I want to play the outfield,” Harper said “I want to get back out there and be in front of the fans in right field doing my stuff and hearing it from all the teams (fans) in the league, too.”

Thomson couldn’t say yet if Harper will play in the outfield this year.

“It all depends on how he heals and gets into his throwing program,” Thomson said. “How all that works out. I don’t think it’s out of the question.”

Harper missed two months last season after breaking a thumb when he was hit by a pitch in late June. The 30-year old hit .286 with 18 homers and 65 RBIs in 99 games.

Harper batted .349 with six home runs and 13 RBIs in 17 postseason games. His two-run homer with two outs in the eighth inning captured the pennant for the Phillies in a 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres.

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski had an active offseason, adding shortstop Trea Turner, infielder Josh Harrison, and pitchers Taijuan Walker, Gregory Soto, Craig Kimbrel and Matt Strahm.

Turner signed a $300 million, 11-year deal after hitting .298 with 21 homers 100 RBIs, 101 runs and 27 stolen bases last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“The people of Philadelphia are going to love this guy just because of the way he plays,” Harper said.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The first thing that Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman thinks about when he wakes up each morning is how the club, stuck in what seems like an interminable rebuild, will play on that particular day.

Not where they will play four or five years down the road.

Yet given the modest expectations for a team that lost nearly 100 games a year ago, it makes sense many Royals fans are just as interested – quite possibly more so – in the plans for a downtown ballpark than whether infielder Bobby Witt Jr. can double down on his brilliant rookie season or pitcher Brady Singer can truly become a staff ace.

That’s why Sherman’s second thought probably moves to the downtown ballpark, too.

“This is a huge decision, and I look at it as maybe the most important decision we’ll make as long as we have the privilege of stewarding this team,” Sherman said before the Royals held a final workout Wednesday ahead of opening day. “I’m probably as anxious as you to get moving on that, but it’s a complicated process.”

The Royals have called Kauffman Stadium home since the sister to Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, opened 50 years ago next month.

And while most stadiums are replaced because they have become outdated, the unique, space-aged look of Kauffman Stadium – built during an era in which teams trended toward impersonal, multisport concrete donuts for their homes – remains beloved by Royals fans and visitors alike.

The problem is that despite numerous renovations over the years, the very concrete holding the ballpark together has begun to crumble in places. The cost simply to repair and maintain the ballpark has become prohibitive.

So with the decision essentially made for them to build an entirely new stadium, the Royals revealed plans to build an entire development in the same mold of The Battery Atlanta, where the Braves built Truist Park, and the Ballpark Village in St. Louis, where the new Busch Stadium is merely the centerpiece of a whole entertainment district.

No site has been secured, but several of the most promising are in downtown Kansas City, where the Power & Light District along with T-Mobile Center have spearheaded a successful era of urban renewal.

Sherman has said that private funds would cover the majority of the stadium cost and the entire village, each carrying a price tag of about $1 billion.

But if any public funding will be used, as it was to build and maintain Kauffman Stadium, then it would need to be voted upon, and the earliest that it could show up on a ballot would be August.

“You look at Atlanta, they took some raw ground – they started with 85 acres – and that has been a complete home run,” said Sherman, who purchased the Royals in August 2019, shortly before the pandemic wreaked havoc on team finances.

“This is one of the reasons we want to do this: That’s helped the Braves become more competitive,” Sherman said of the vast potential for increased revenue for one of the smallest-market teams in baseball. “They have locked up and extended the core of their future, and the Braves are in a great position from a baseball standpoint.”

So perhaps the first two thoughts Sherman has each day – about performance and the future – are one and the same.

When it comes to the team itself, the Royals were largely quiet throughout the winter, though that was by design.

Rather than spending heavily on free agents that might help them win a few more games, they decided to stay the course with a promising young roster in the hopes that the development of those players would yield better results.

In fact, Sherman said, the club has been discussing extensions for some of the Royals’ foundational pieces – presumably Witt, who was fourth in voting for AL rookie of the year, and Singer, who was 10-5 with a 3.23 ERA last season.

“We’re having conversations about that as we speak,” Sherman said. “We have a number of young players that we’re trying to evaluate and we’re talking to their representatives about what might work.”

Just because the Royals’ roster largely looks the same, that doesn’t mean nothing has changed. The Royals fired longtime general manager Dayton Moore in September and moved J.J. Picollo to the role, then fired manager Mike Matheny in October and replaced him with longtime Indians and Rays coach Matt Quatraro.

Sherman said the new voices created a palpable energy in spring training that he hopes carries into the regular season.

“When we acquired the team, we had three primary objectives,” Sherman said. “One was to win more games; we’re working on that. The second was to secure the future; that’s what (the stadium) is. And the third was to do good in the community.

“But the first priority,” he said, “is really the on-field product. That’s what really lifts everything else up.”

Phillies’ Bryce Harper could return by All-Star break

Royals’ John Sherman optimistic about new ballpark, current team