Washington Nationals: Bryce Harper’s experience under pressure helps in contract year

WEST PALM BEACH, FL - MARCH 08: Bryce Harper
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - MARCH 08: Bryce Harper

The pending free agency of Bryce Harper is among the most highly anticipated in MLB history. With the possibility of the most substantial contract in sports looming at the end of the season, many players would feel the pressure. However, Harper has nearly a decade of experience in managing external pressure.

“Baseball’s LeBron” was the description Tom Verducci assigned to Bryce Harper in 2009 when Harper was just 16. That article landed Harper on the cover of that issue of Sports Illustrated where he’s helmed “Baseball’s Chosen One.” Harper was never a secret, but he never needed to be.

Assigning titles like that to a young athlete who is just months removed from being eligible for a driver’s license could seem like a curse or jinx. But Harper took it in stride. He continued to outperform his peers at every level of the game and made his MLB debut with the Washington  Nationals when he was just 19.

Bryce Harper has always played the game with pressure and expectations, and an impending monster contract is just another extension of that.

Top prospect to top asset

Harper was hardly a prospect. He spent just one full year in the Nationals’ minor league system before making his MLB debut in 2012. He was a teenager in the big leagues. One of MLB’s all-time top prospects and all the eyes in baseball were watching to see if Harper could perform on the big stage.

More from Call to the Pen

Harper’s 22 home runs and 121 wRC+ in 2012 was enough to win him Rookie of the Year that season.

An early season knee injury at Dodger Stadium kept Harper to playing in just 118 games in his sophomore season. Still, he hit only two fewer homes run in 21 fewer games compared to his rookie year. Meanwhile, his wRC+ climbed to 137.

The centerpiece of a contender

The 2015 Nationals had as high of expectations as anyone in MLB heading into the season. They had found their ace in Max Scherzer, other critical pitchers like Stephen Strasburg were continuing to develop, and Harper was only getting better. The Nationals’ 2015 season was looking like a 162 game victory lap. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t quite that.

It wasn’t an awful season at all for Nationals’ fans. Their new ace Max Scherzer threw two no-hitters in the regular season. Stephen Strasburg continued to progress, and Harper was everything they’d hoped for. It wasn’t enough to keep the New York Mets and their young pitching staff from taking the NL East. Still, it wasn’t a bad year for the Nationals. But it was supposed to be a great year—and for Bryce Harper’s stat sheet, it was.

Harper went above and beyond what a contender would ask of their centerpiece. He played in 153 games, recorded an absurd wRC+ of 197 and won the National League MVP unanimously. The Nationals were projected to be one of the best teams in MLB in 2015, and Harper knew it. He responded by recording perhaps one of the best offensive seasons in recent years.

The future of baseball’s prodigal son

Barring anything extraordinary happening this season, someone is going to give Bryce Harper a lot of money. He’s been keeping his lips tight about his impending free agency because that’s not how he approaches baseball. Every year, Harper somehow seems able to shut down the noise no matter how loud it gets around him.

Next: Miami Marlins: Marlins Man looking for a new team

No matter how big of a story Harper’s contract year feels to fans and spectators, it won’t weigh heavily on Harper as he and the Washington Nationals hope for a deep postseason run.