CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Bryce Harper is as hungry as ever.
He spent the past couple of weeks playing for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. He had a blast, he said. He capped the tournament by crushing a dramatic game-tying two-run home run with two outs in the eighth inning in Tuesday night’s championship game against Venezuela.
It was his latest signature moment, but Venezuela scored a run in the ninth to win the title.
“Any time you go into any type of tournament, you want to win,” Harper said Thursday morning at BayCare Ballpark. “Any time you get into any season, you want to win. We've been so close as a team. I've been so close as an individual player, as well. Obviously, that's the remaining thing on the mantle, right? Winning a gold medal in the [World Baseball Classic] would have been incredible.
"But winning a World Series trophy is what you play for, what you dream of. Hopefully looking forward to doing that this year.”
Harper hit .214 (6-for-28) with one double, one home run, three RBIs and a .624 OPS in seven games in the Classic. Nobody should make too much about any seven-game stretch, whether it’s Harper, Chase Utley, Mike Schmidt or Chuck Klein. But the results are the results.
“I felt great the whole time,” Harper said. “I just felt like timing was a little off. I thought my swing felt great. I thought I was getting 3-2 [counts] a lot of the times. Definitely missing some pitches over the plate, things like that. But I think everything was about timing, more than anything, for me. If we had a week left in that tournament, I feel like I would have turned the corner and been pretty good.
"So I felt good the last two days against Dominican [Republic] and Venezuela. My swing feels very good right now. I feel like my pitch recognition is pretty good right now, as well. Felt like I controlled the zone pretty well, also. Just timing.”
Pitch recognition and controlling the strike zone has been a focus for Harper this spring. Everybody knows he doesn’t get pitches to hit. He saw just 43.1% of pitches in the zone last year, which was the fewest out of 532 players (minimum 200 pitches).
It was nothing new. He saw just 42.1% of pitches in the zone from 2015-25.
And in the World Baseball Classic … with Aaron Judge hitting behind him?
Harper saw just 40% of pitches in the zone.
“We’ve told him, the big thing is you protect yourself,” Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long said earlier this month. “You know how you protect yourself? You swing at good pitches, and that’s your protection. Your protection is you going up there and controlling the at-bat.”
The bigger problem last season was that Harper had a 35.6% chase rate (swings at pitches out of the strike zone). It was his highest mark since 2022 (35.7%).
In 11 games this spring (seven at the Classic, four in the Grapefruit League), however, Harper has chased only 27.5% of pitches out of the zone (30 of 109).
“Me just giving a crap about it,” Harper said about the improvement. “Just making sure I do it. Obviously, that's a big thing for me. If I can home in my strike zone and understand I'm really good when I walk. So if i can walk 140-150 times this year, then I think I'll be right where I want to be.”
So it’s just a matter of being more mindful?
“It's just buying in,” he said.
Was he not buying in last year?
“No, I was,” he said. “I just need to make sure I walk and not just want to get hits all the time. I want to hit. I want to be a hitter, obviously. I want to make moves. I want to hit homers and hit doubles and all those things. But sometimes, it's better for me if I walk. I can do that a little bit more this year.”
It’s unclear what manager Rob Thomson’s lineup will be on Opening Day, but if Harper walks 100-plus times, he could have Kyle Schwarber hitting behind him 100-plus times.
It would put more pressure on opposing pitchers.
And, eventually, maybe Harper gets a few more pitches in the zone, like the one he crushed on Tuesday.
“I think the main thing is just making sure I stay within myself and stay in my zone and get to where I need to go,” he said.