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Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker is a fan of Bryce Harper. And, apparently, corporal punishment. 

“Will I have to spank him sometimes? Maybe,” Baker said of his star outfielder Tuesday, a day after Harper was ejected from a 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers, per James Wagner of the Washington Post.

Harper, 23, was thrown out by umpire Brian Knight in the ninth inning after arguing a questionable strike call on Danny Espinosa from the Nationals’ dugout. After Clint Robinson hit a walk-off homer later in the inning to give the Nationals a win, Harper was seen yelling not-so-PG words at Knight. 

“Yeah, absolutely,” Harper said, per Eddie Matz of ESPN.com, admitting the exchange. “I was pretty upset. I think I was right to do that. Let him hear what I have to say, let him hear it again, and so what? Couple choice words. If I do [get fined], I do. I’ll pay it. So I think it deserves to, you know, maybe he’ll get fined, too. So we’ll see.”

Harper previously jawed with Knight over balls and strikes during a fourth-inning strikeout. Going on the field after an ejection is prohibited by MLB rules—even in situations like a walk-off home run. Baker said Harper deserves a fine for violating the rule but wasn’t unhappy with his reigning MVP.

“There are enough emotionless people in the world,” Baker said, per Wagner.

It’s possible Harper was projecting some of his own personal frustrations onto Knight on Monday night. After lighting the world on fire in a nine-homer April, Harper has struggled as teams have pitched him more carefully in May. He’s hitting just .174/.500/.304 with one home run and three runs batted in for the month. The Chicago Cubs gave him a Bondsian welcome over the weekend, walking him 13 times in 19 plate appearances over a four-game sweep.

Even when Harper has been seeing strikes, he hasn’t been the same monster that he was in April. He’s already struck out 13 times for the month, equaling his total for all of April in just 10 days. Harper has only had 12 plate appearances all month that have not ended in a strikeout or walk.

So while Harper’s “choice words” Monday night may have been aimed at an umpire, it’s likely more a product of his frustration boiling over. 

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter. All stats and splits courtesy of Baseball Reference unless otherwise noted.

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Agent Scott Boras may not be done directing his clients to stay with the Washington Nationals after securing a seven-year, $175 million extension for starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg on Tuesday, per MLB.com’s Bill Ladson.

“Bryce Harper is a scenario where this ownership certainly has the financial wherewithal to do what they want to do,” Boras said of the star outfielder, who is set to be a free agent in 2019, per USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale. “It’s really up to the Lerners what they want to do with [Harper].”

Re-signing Strasburg on its own is big for the Nationals since they secured their No. 2 starter behind Max Scherzer for the long term. What it signifies—a Nationals player eschewing free agency to sign a new deal—might be bigger.

Boras didn’t give any indication Harper would take a hometown discount to stay in the nation’s capital. As long as he stays healthy, he’s likely to get the richest contract in baseball history:

NBC Sports’ Joe Posnanski wrote that the reigning National League MVP could command $500 million. If the Miami Marlins can give Giancarlo Stanton $325 million over 13 years—albeit in a back-loaded deal—then $500 million for Harper isn’t inconceivable.

The Nationals will have to pay a king’s ransom in order to sign Harper beyond his arbitration years, whether he becomes a free agent or not. Avoiding a bidding war could save Washington some money, though, and the team would receive a significant boost should Boras and Harper be willing to negotiate an extension before the end of the 2018 season.

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Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper was ejected during the ninth inning of Monday’s 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers, and the reigning National League MVP showed no regret for his actions afterward. 

Harper was tossed after he and several Nats teammates yelled at home plate umpire Brian Knight for calling Danny Espinosa out on strikes. Clint Robinson hit a walk-off, pinch-hit home run shortly thereafter, and Harper expressed his displeasure by barking at Knight again and apparently cursing.

According to ESPN.com’s Eddie Matz, the 23-year-old outfielder felt as though his reaction to Knight’s decision was warranted: “I was pretty upset. I think I was right to do that. Let him hear what I have to say, let him hear it again, and so what? Couple choice words. If I do [get fined], I do. I’ll pay it. So I think it deserves to, you know, maybe he’ll get fined, too. So we’ll see.”

Nats manager Dusty Baker also commented on the ejection, and although Harper has already been tossed seven times during his young career, the veteran skipper doesn’t believe it will become a serious issue: “It’s an emotional game. He’s an emotional young man. You certainly don’t like him to get tossed, but every once in a while, you gotta blow off some steam or else you go crazy. I’m sure it won’t happen again.”

Harper is among the most feared hitters in baseball, as evidenced by his .330 batting average and 42 home runs en route to being named National League MVP last season.

His 2016 numbers are down a bit to the tune of a .260 average with 10 homers and 27 RBI, but after the Chicago Cubs walked him an MLB-record 13 times in a four-game series last week, it is clear that teams respect what he can do at the plate.

Harper’s emotions have gotten him in trouble with regard to ejections over the course of his career, and while Monday’s incident didn’t cost the team, it could have if Robinson didn’t end the game with a home run.

The Nationals are a far more dangerous team when Harper is on the field and in the No. 3 spot of the lineup, so although his fiery demeanor makes for some interesting moments, the Nats would benefit from a bit more restraint in the future.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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The Washington Nationals won Monday’s game against the Detroit Tigers 5-4 on Clint Robinson’s walk-off home run, but it was superstar Bryce Harper‘s actions during the ensuing celebration that turned heads.

MLB.com provided a video that seemed to show Harper cursing at an umpire as the Nationals mobbed Robinson:

Bill Baer of NBC Sports noted Harper “had apparently been chirping” at home plate umpire Brian Knight since he was called out on strikes in the bottom of the fourth inning. After Danny Espinosa struck out looking in the ninth, Knight ejected Harper from the dugout, per Baer.

Robinson then hit the game-winning homer in the next at-bat (the umpires reviewed the play to make sure a fan didn’t interfere with the ball), prompting the celebration.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported Harper is facing a fine or suspension because ejected players are not allowed to return to the field.

Harper made headlines in March in a story that appeared in ESPN The Magazine (via Eddie Matz of ESPN.com) when he said, “Baseball’s tired. It’s a tired sport because you can’t express yourself. You can’t do what people in other sports do.”

Harper—who was seen sporting a hat that said “Make Baseball Fun Again” after those early-season quotes—certainly expressed himself Monday.

Harper was asked after the game if he thinks he will be fined for those expressions and said, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post, “If I do, I do. I’ll pay it. Maybe he’ll get fined too.” 

He also explained his mindset, per Baseball Tonight: “I was pretty upset…I let him hear what I had to say, let him hear it again and you know, so what?”

Following Monday’s game, Harper is hitting .260 with 10 home runs and 27 RBI in the 2016 campaign. That would mark the lowest batting average of his career, if it holds up, but he is also boasting an impressive .434 on-base percentage and 1.054 OPS on the season, per ESPN.com.

His on-base percentage is so high because opposing pitching staffs have treated him with such caution. The Chicago Cubs walked him six times and hit him with a pitch Sunday, which marked the first time a player reached base safely seven times without an official at-bat in one game in 100 years, per ESPN Stats & Info (via Jayson Stark of ESPN).

Harper won the 2015 National League MVP with a .330 batting average, 42 home runs, 99 RBI and a 1.109 OPS.

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The Washington Nationals have decided to count on a guy who’s traditionally been hard to count on.

They could be glad they did.

For now, Stephen Strasburg can count his money. As Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post and Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported before and during Strasburg’s outing against the Detroit Tigers on Monday, the 27-year-old right-hander is getting a contract extension worth $175 million over seven years*.

Oh, right. The asterisk. Heyman noted that Strasburg’s deal includes deferrals, so its value is actually less than $175 million. Further, Buster Olney of ESPN reported that Strasburg could play only three years of his seven-year contract before getting out of it:

So, don’t think of this as a seven-year deal. It’s more like a three-year deal with a four-year player option or a four-year deal with a three-year player option.

Even still, the fact that there’s any kind of deal between the Nationals and Strasburg is an eyebrow-raiser. As a Scott Boras client, he’s among a breed not known for signing extensions before free agency. And in Strasburg’s case, his free agency was less than six months away.

Clearly, Strasburg wasn’t kidding when he told B/R’s Scott Miller during spring training: “The thing I’ve come to learn is anything can happen. Anything can happen a week from now or eight or nine months from now.”

Perhaps all Strasburg needed to see was fair market value, and that’s roughly what he’s gotten.

The going rate for an ace pitcher is at least $25 million per year, and the only ace pitcher cred Strasburg lacks is durability. Otherwise, the former No. 1 pick’s 3.07 ERA since 2010 arguably undersells how good he’s been. According to his FIP and xFIP, Strasburg’s dominance over the last six-plus seasons rivals that of Clayton Kershaw.

And he’s getting better. Strasburg went into Monday’s outing with a 2.08 ERA and 139-to-17 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 16 starts dating back to last summer. There was never anything wrong with his control, his curveball or his changeup, but now he’s benefiting from more high fastballs (see before and after at Brooks Baseball) and a new slider that can do this:

If Strasburg were to keep this up all year, odds are he would have found more than seven years and $175 million on the free-agent market. The contracts of David Price and Zack Greinke prove that the best aces can garner more than $30 million per year, and Strasburg would have had the advantage of lackluster competition. Whereas this past winter’s market was loaded with quality pitching, this winter’s market was going to have little of that outside of Strasburg.

But given his history, Strasburg can’t be blamed for getting his while the getting is good. That’s also where the Nationals’ risk creeps into the conversation.

Though Strasburg has generally been good when healthy, “when healthy” is a bigger problem for him than it is for other aces. He’s reached 30 starts only twice and logged over 200 innings only once. Multiple injuries have played a part in that, with his 2010 Tommy John operation being the biggest.

Which leads us to this thought from Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports: “The Nationals are betting as much on future performance as past—a tricky wager seeing as they’re the franchise that has publicly said they fear the health of Tommy John pitchers after their seventh year post-op. Strasburg’s seventh year is next season.”

It’s possible Strasburg’s elbow could break down again. In fact, according to the model developed by Bradley Woodrum, Tim Dierkes and the rest of the MLB Trade Rumors staff, Strasburg began the year with well above average risk for another Tommy John operation.

If another injury doesn’t get Strasburg, declining stuff might. His average fastball velocity of 94.7 mph is very good but down from his 97.3 mph peak in 2010 and 95-96 mph in four of the last five years. And according to research by Bill Petti of FanGraphs, Strasburg is already past the point when starters tend to begin leaking velocity. There’s a high probability his velocity will keep going down.

So though this isn’t technically a free-agent contract, it’s just as risky as your standard free-agent contract. Washington’s $175 million looks like money well spent in the present, but that could change.

But as is usually the case with contemporary contracts, we must also acknowledge that the opt-out (or opt-outs in this case) changes things. If the Nationals are hedging their bet on the possibility they’ll have to pay Strasburg only for the next three seasons, it’s not hard to see what they have in mind.

By keeping Strasburg in town for at least the next three years, Washington will have him for what will likely be the rest of Max Scherzer’s prime. That will ensure it at least has an elite duo atop its rotation. And as arguably the best prospect in the minor leagues right now, flame-throwing right-hander Lucas Giolito could turn that elite duo into an elite trio if he lives up to his billing. The Nationals also control Gio Gonzalez, Tanner Roark and Joe Ross through 2018.

The 2018 season is also due to be Bryce Harper’s last in Washington. If all the speculation about his inevitable payday—he said “don’t sell me short” when asked about a $400 million deal in February—has the Nationals already resigned to losing him, then loading up to go for World Series glory before he leaves is undeniably their best avenue going forward.

Locking up Strasburg always was going to be the first step forward in that direction. And though the deal does come with a cloud of risk, the Nationals could very well walk away happy.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The Washington Nationals and starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg have agreed to a seven-year contract extension, the team confirmed Tuesday.

Nationals owner Theodore N. Lerner spoke about the contract in a statement, via Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post:

Ensuring that Stephen will remain a part of our organization for years to come is a proud moment for our entire family. We are very fond of Stephen and his entire family, and we’ve thought very highly of them since he became such an integral part of our organization almost seven years ago. We’re honored that he feels the same way about the Washington Nationals, and very happy to keep him pitching in the nation’s capital.

Mark Zuckerman of MASN also shared a statement from Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo:

On Monday, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post cited “a person familiar with the situation” when first reporting a “significant long-term extension.”

Jon Heyman of MLB Network confirmed the deal was for seven years and $175 million and provided an update to the situation on his Facebook page: “A press conference has been scheduled for Tuesday regarding Strasburg, sources close to the team said, though nobody is officially confirming the subject of the presser.”

ESPN The Magazine‘s Buster Olney provided further specifics on Strasburg’s massive deal, which includes some flexibility and doesn’t necessarily restrict him to the Nationals for seven years:

Strasburg’s deal includes a “limited” no-trade clause that will begin in 2017, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. 

Spotrac outlined where Strasburg’s massive payday ranks among his highest-paid contemporaries:

So Washington could’ve broken the bank even more for Strasburg, considering the number of pitchers in baseball who command greater salaries. Overall, though, the contract seems fair for both sides in light of the up-and-down tenure Strasburg has had in the nation’s capital.

It’s been a long and winding road for Strasburg and the Nationals. When healthy, he’s been one of the most dominant pitchers in all of baseball. He’s dealt with numerous injury issues throughout his career, however, which added some uncertainty to the equation as his free agency neared.

The 27-year-old San Diego State product came into 2016 with a 3.09 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and an eye-popping 901 strikeouts in 776.2 innings across 132 career starts. Thus far, he has a 5-0 record, 2.36 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 47 strikeouts in 42 innings this season.

Despite how good Strasburg can be when on the mound, his injury history must be considered a concern.

The right-hander suffered a torn ligament in his pitching elbow in August 2010. He proceeded to miss a vast majority of the 2011 campaign, and the team enforced an innings limit in 2012, which forced him to miss the playoffs.

While he’s managed to avoid any major setbacks since that point, he’s still battled numerous minor injury problems in the following years. That includes two trips to the 15-day disabled list during the 2015 campaign.

His name popped up in the rumor mill over the winter as a potential trade target. Nothing developed on that front, and the sides eventually reached an agreement on a one-year, $10.4 million deal to avoid arbitration in his final season before unrestricted free agency, per Spotrac.

Back in December, Strasburg discussed trying to avoid the outside noise about his future with Todd Dybas of the Washington Times.

“I found with pitching, I pitch better if I don’t stress out as much, if I just focus on the now,” he said.

Ultimately, the Nationals decided Strasburg was too important to the team’s success to let him get away. Trying to fill the void would have been a serious uphill battle, even when taking into account the injury issues he’s dealt with at times.

Those concerns do add a little more risk to the signing, but they’re outweighed by the upside. Strasburg is currently in what are typically a pitcher’s prime seasons, and he should provide Washington with plenty of value moving forward.

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Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker doesn’t plan to change his lineup after reigning National League MVP Bryce Harper reached base seven times without recording a single hit on Sunday.   

“I thought about it hard and long, but a few days doesn’t merit you switching it up,” Baker said, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. “If he had gotten one hit one of those times, you wouldn’t be asking me this today. Not yet.”

The Chicago Cubs walked Harper 13 times during their four-game series against the Nationals, with six of them coming in Washington’s 4-3 loss Sunday in 13 innings. Harper went 1-for-4 in the series with one RBI.

The Las Vegas native has hit 10 home runs and bats third in the lineup. Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman is normally the cleanup hitter, but the veteran has batted .236 this year.

Baker was also asked about moving the newly acquired Daniel Murphy to the No. 4 spot. Murphy leads Washington with 45 hits and is batting .395, but having a left-handed bat follow the left-handed Harper could cause issues late in games, according to Baker.

“What happens if I switch it up against this team, and they have three left-handed relievers in the bullpen, and they can bring in their lefties to take care of my two guys that are hot in the fifth, seventh and ninth, and only use three guys out of their bullpen?” Baker said, per Janes.

The Nationals came into Monday at 19-12 and trailing the New York Mets by a half-game in the National League East. It’s too early for Baker to consider a lineup change since the one he has currently resulted in wins, and Harper won’t be walked six times every game.

If it becomes a constant issue, then Baker should consider moving Murphy up just to ensure instant offense near the top of the lineup. Zimmerman’s struggles at the plate have been well-documented the last two years, and he’s not a capable run producer at this stage in his career anymore. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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CHICAGO — Imagine if there were a way, on every New England Patriots possession, to prevent Tom Brady from throwing the football. Or if, somehow, a defense could find a loophole in basketball’s rules that ensured Stephen Curry couldn’t touch the ball on every offensive possession.

Both would be sound strategies. But such strategies would also hurt the appeal of those sports.

We want to see the best play. Watching opposing teams prevent that doesn’t make for great theater.

In a loss on Sunday to the Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, the reigning National League MVP, was walked a record six times (three times intentionally) and was also hit by a pitch. He was without an official at-bat.

The strategy was great for the Cubs but bad for the game.

“It’s kind of like in basketball hack-a-Shaq, whoever they’re hacking,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “I guess that’s part of the game and part of strategy.

“But the fans didn’t come here to see him walk. They came here to see him swing the bat.”

Well, considering how tortured Cubs fans have been for, say, the last century—give or take a few years—Baker isn’t entirely correct. Fans flocked to Wrigley Field primarily to see the Cubs win.

But his point is well-taken. Sports fans want to see the best compete. Walking Harper so many times robbed fans of the opportunity to watch the game’s best pitcher, Jake Arrieta, face its best hitter in Harper.

Sunday was like watching the same bad movie seven straight times.

Baseball is desperate for drama. The MLB playoffs provide that. But the course of a 162-game schedule can, at times, seem as redundant as a season of cop-show storylines.

Harper has made it clear that he wants to amp up the excitement. 

That’s impossible, though, if he isn’t allowed to swing the bat. Imagine an NBA Finals where the defense fouled Curry every possession to keep him from shooting three-pointers. It wouldn’t be very entertaining.

Baseball is a sport that allows opponents to fully avoid a problem. It’s a flaw few other sports share.

“When you’re a pitcher, you’re not going to not challenge a guy because of what their name is and what they can do,” said Tanner Roark, who started for Washington on Sunday. “You can’t play scared. This is a game, and it’s not ‘here’s your free pass.’ Sometimes it calls for that, but I think it’s scared baseball.”

Roark may be posturing. But he’s right about this: We don’t want to see the Cubs or Arrieta hide in a corner.

We may only get one more chance to see Arrieta face Harper this season, assuming the right-handed Cubs starter is scheduled to pitch during the two teams’ three-game series in Washington June 13-15. It’s the last time the teams are scheduled to play this season.

Sunday, baseball was robbed of, arguably, its most anticipated matchup. Twice the Cubs walked Harper to load the bases for first baseman Ryan Zimmerman.

“The way he approaches the game, he tries to pound the strike zone, but he also pitches to his strengths, and that’s what he does every time he goes out there,” Harper said. “So I don’t think he’s going to change his plan to try to get me to go this way or that way. So I think you just try to go up there, wait for your pitch and try to drive. That’s what I did today. I didn’t really get anything over the plate that I could try to drive.”

The short-term solution is for Zimmerman to hit. He bats fourth behind Harper and has struggled. Zimmerman is only hitting .236/.293/.340. He was 0-for-7 Sunday, which is part of the reason the Cubs walked Harper to get to him. If Zimmerman were raking, this wouldn’t be an issue.

But intentional walks have always been a part of the game. The problem with them—that a manager can choose whom his team faces—was magnified Sunday.

Baseball needs a long-term fix to a strategy that is hurting its appeal.

The NFL changed its rules to protect quarterbacks after noticing injuries to the position hurt the game. The NBA eliminated the hand check to allow for more offense.

Yet MLB lingers far behind in curtailing its rules to allow for more showmanship.

Quite possibly, the game might need to allow a batter—and those on base—to advance two bases if a team throws him four straight balls. The way to eliminate the strategy the Cubs employed on Harper would be to make the consequences greater.

This way, a manager would never walk a player with runners in scoring position. An intentional walk would score a runner who was on second.

Other leagues have changed their rules to better the game.

This may seem extreme, but people thought it was drastic when the NCAA tournament extended its field to include 64 teams and 68 after that. Some thought enhancing rules to protect quarterbacks was over the top. Others detested the idea of eliminating the hand check. In all cases, it worked out.

MLB needs to do something extreme to eliminate what happened Sunday.

Chicago manager Joe Maddon decided who would win the Arrieta-Harper battle by gifting the hitter first base. The strategy worked out great for the Cubs.

It would work out better for the game if we let the players decide.

Seth Gruen is a national baseball columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @SethGruen.

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Washington Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth was held out of the lineup against the Miami Marlins on Thursday after suffering a hamstring injury Wednesday night. However, he has been cleared to return.

Continue for updates.

Werth Active vs. Twins

Friday, April 22

The Nationals announced Werth was in the starting lineup against the Minnesota Twins on Friday.

Werth Hitting Stride After Shaky Start

Werth started the season with one hit in his first 16 at-bats across five games. He went a more reasonable 7-for-27 with two home runs in the eight contests prior to the injury.

Getting him back on track is one of the biggest keys to the Nationals’ season. He’s smashed 200 career home runs and reached the 20-homer plateau five times in his career, but he’s coming off an injury-plagued 2015 season that saw him finish with just 12 long balls.

The health concerns don’t come as a surprise anymore, though. He’s appeared in more than 140 games just twice in his previous five seasons in Washington. He plays the game hard, and that tends to take a collective toll on his body during the course of a year.

It makes sense for the Nationals to play it safe by sitting Werth for a game, as exacerbating the injury could have led to a lengthier issue for the outfielder.

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Anyone who came into the season thinking Bryce Harper couldn’t possibly improve on his superstar-making 2015 season should know this: Harper’s 2016 self is making his 2015 self look like a chump.

The Washington Nationals star slugger was already off to a hot start, carrying a .341 average, a 1.296 OPS and six home runs into Tuesday’s game against the Miami Marlins. But because “hotter” is always better than just “hot,” Harper helped Washington’s cause in a 7-0 win with his second grand slam in the last week.

Observe and enjoy:

With that, Harper now has seven home runs. Only Colorado Rockies wunderkind Trevor Story has more, and he can’t quite match Harper’s .333/.429/.867 slash line. And neither can anyone else, for that matter, as his 1.295 OPS leads all qualified hitters. 

If that sounds familiar, that’s because Harper occupied the same position in that department last year with his league-leading 1.109 OPS. He also led baseball with a .460 on-base percentage and a .649 slugging percentage. His 42 home runs, meanwhile, tied him for the National League lead.

Officially, Harper’s big prize was the National League MVP, for which he was a unanimous selection. Unofficially, though, the 23-year-old’s other big prize was getting that “most overrated player” monkey off his back, per ESPN The Magazine (via ESPN). When a guy has the best offensive season since Barry Bonds at his large-hatted peak, a label like that doesn’t fit so well anymore.

And from the looks of things, Harper doesn’t want that label to come anywhere close to him ever again.

It wasn’t hard to determine how Harper went from being a solid .270-ish hitter with 20-homer power in his first three seasons to the most dangerous hitter in the game last season. As a former No. 1 pick, the underlying talent for such a transition was always there. The main thing he needed was good health, which he finally enjoyed in 2015.

With those boxes checked off, the next item on Harper’s superstar to-do list was to improve his discipline. He checked that box by taking fewer swings and chasing fewer pitches outside the strike zone. That not only meant a whole lot more walks, but fewer strikeouts as well.

But all that was apparently just a warm-up for 2016. If last season took Harper’s approach from bad to good, this season is taking it from good to great:

Note: Harper’s Swing%, O-Swing% and SwStr% marks here haven’t been updated to include Tuesday’s game.

Harper is swinging roughly as often as he did in 2015, but he’s not chasing or whiffing as often. He actually has more home runs (seven) than he does strikeouts (six), which is just not supposed to happen in an environment where strikeouts rule and power is oppressed.

That’s the profile of a hitter who’s nigh impossible for pitchers to fool, and we’ll leave it to his manager to corroborate it with eyewitness testimony.

“He has an idea what they’re trying to do to him,” Nats skipper Dusty Baker told Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports earlier this month. “That’s where it starts. You have to have an idea what the opposition’s opinion of you is and what their game plan is. I think he recognizes rather quickly what their game plan is.”

Harper’s other big change in 2015 was embracing his best natural hitting talent and turning his power-hitter mode to 11. He put balls in the air at the highest rate of his career, traded in an all-fields approach for more of a pull-oriented approach and just hit the ball hard.

In keeping with our theme, Harper is doing all the same things in 2016, except better. With assistance from Baseball Savant for his exit velocity, here’s the scoop:

Harper isn’t pulling the ball at a significantly higher rate than he was a year ago, but only a small handful of hitters are putting the ball in the air more often. And as his jump in exit velocity shows, contact off his bat is somehow even louder this year than it was in 2015.

All this is Harper’s 2016 evolution spelled out in statistical gobbledygook. For a good practical summary, Dave Cameron of FanGraphs nailed it when he wrote that the current version of Harper is like “Joey Votto‘s control of the strike zone married to Chris Davis’ power when Chris Davis is on a hot streak.”

For those who prefer ballplayer-ese, here is Jayson Werth seemingly struggling to even comprehend Harper in a chat with Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post:

Since Werth was reluctant to say it, I will: Right now, Harper is indeed the best player in baseball.

That was up for debate last year. Mike Trout went into 2015 with the “best player in baseball” crown firmly on his head, and the Los Angeles Angels center fielder maintained a strong grip on it with a .991 OPS, 41 home runs and solid defense in center field.

But Harper actually topped Trout in wins above replacement last year, and there’s no ignoring the present reality of his pseudo-rivalry with Trout. Whereas Trout’s best season is still his big breakthrough back in 2012, Harper’s own big breakthrough is ongoing and only gaining momentum.

In the long run, maybe it’ll result in some record-breaking history. In the meantime, there should be plenty of history for Harper to make in the short run.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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