'I Love Philly': Bryce Harper Talks Phillies Future, Love Of City

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Back during that now so-distant winter of 2018 into 2019, Bryce Harper had the world at his fingertips.

Entering free agency at just 26 years of age, with an MVP award already under his belt, Harper was in the incredibly rare position of dictating his future. He had the choice of any major city, any Major League Baseball franchise, in the entire country.

And he chose Philadelphia.

"There's no better place for me," he said in an interview with Barstool Sports' Starting 9, published on Wednesday, citing again the importance of the city's blue collar attitude in his final decision.

The interview is perhaps the most in-depth, behind the scenes look yet at what was one of the most highly anticipated baseball offseasons in recent memory. Harper, along with fellow young phenom Manny Machado, entered free agency in his mid-20s, knowing that teams around the league would be courting his services.

In the interview, he explained his gracious approach to the Washington Nationals deadline discussions in July 2018, when they had a "handshake" deal to trade him to the Houston Astros for prospects. He said he would've been fine with such a trade, knowing that the Nationals were making their team better, and there would've been "no bad blood" as headed into free agency just a few months later.

However, the Nationals, the team that Harper played on for the first seven years of his career, did not communicate with Harper about the trade at all.

Harper also admitted he did have a desire to stay with the Nationals for his entire career, citing players like Derek Jeter, Cal Ripken, and Mike Trout as examples. But the Nationals offer, which deferred payments of a significant amount of his contract over the next 55 years, "hurt him."

So instead he turned elsewhere. He met with the Chicago White Sox. He met with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Houston Astros offered him "stupid" money on a one-year deal. He held an initial meeting with the Phillies, but remained skeptical.

"I flat out told those guys (Phillies representatives in their first meeting), we kicked your ass for the last couple years," Harper said.

But the more Harper learned about the organization, and more specifically, about the city, the more he came to understand that Philadelphia was where he was meant to be.

"That's what fuels me going out there every single damn day," he said. "I wanna play 158 to 162 (out of 162 games in an MLB season) because those fans work through their whole week to buy a ticket to a Saturday day game, or a Saturday night game, and if I'm not playing, that's a slap in the face to them."

Harper even addressed rumors that the Phillies were considering trading for Chicago Cubs superstar Kris Bryant, who happens to be one of Harper's best friends. The pair grew up playing baseball in Las Vegas together. While Harper said part of the reason he came to Philly was because he knew the organization would be aggressive in obtaining star players, he said he didn't want them to trade for Bryant if it meant "killing prospects" — specifically, Phillies fledgling right-hander, Spencer Howard.

For any Phillies fan who watched the 2018-19 hot stove with bated breath, the interview is well worth a watch: