User:GhostRiver/bryce

Bryce Aron Max Harper (born October 16, 1992) is an American professional baseball right fielder and designated hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). From 2012 to 2018, he played in MLB for the Washington Nationals. A two-time National League (NL) MVP and six-time MLB All-Star, Harper is considered by sports journalists to be one of the greatest active players in professional baseball.

Early life and college career
Harper was born on October 16, 1992, in Las Vegas, Nevada. His mother Sheri (nee Brooks) worked as a paralegal, while his father Ron was a longtime ironworker. The youngest of three children, Harper began playing tee-ball on his older brother Bryan's team when he was three years old. By the age of nine, Harper received offers to play organized baseball on traveling teams. As a youth baseball player in the greater Las Vegas area, Harper became acquainted with future Major League Baseball (MLB) players Joey Gallo and Kris Bryant. Harper began receiving national attention as a freshman catcher for Las Vegas High School, when he batted .590 with 11 home runs, 67 runs batted in (RBI), and 36 stolen bases in 38 games. That summer, he was also named the tournament MVP at the COPABE Youth Pan American Championships, batting .571 with four home runs and 16 RBI in eight games as he took the United States national team to a gold medal.

Draft and minor leagues
The Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB), who had lost a combined 205 games during the and  seasons, selected Harper first overall in the 2010 MLB Draft. Although Harper's contract was expected to exceed Mark Teixeira's record for any position player draft pick, there was some concern over the Nationals' decision to sign Harper as an outfielder rather than as a catcher, a move designed to accelerate his path through the minor leagues and prolong his professional baseball career. Less than one minute before the MLB signing deadline, Harper agreed to a contract with the Nationals, the terms of which included $9.9 million over five years, a $6.25 million signing bonus, and eight semesters of college tuition. Due to his late signing, Harper was unable to play any games with the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Nationals, but he was able to practice with the team and participate in the Florida Instructional League. He also played for the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League (AFL), where, in 35 at bats, Harper had a .343 batting average, .410 on-base percentage, .629 slugging percentage, three doubles, two triples, and one home run. His run batted in (RBI) in the AFL championships lifted the Scorpions to a 3–2 victory over the Peoria Javelinas.

Harper opened the 2011 season in a hitting slump for the Low-A Hagerstown Suns, going 7-for-31 in his first nine games for the new team. He realized mid-April, after an appointment with the team optometrist, that his slump was due in part to poor vision. Within three games of getting contact lenses, Harper collected two home runs and two extra-base hits. After 20 games with corrective lenses, Harper had seven home runs, 10 doubles, and 23 RBI. With 14 home runs and a .318 batting average in 258 at bats with Hagerstown, the Nationals decided that Harper would bypass Class A-Advanced entirely and go directly to the Double-A Harrisburg Senators on July 4. Shortly after his promotion, he played in left field at the All-Star Futures Game, where the US defeated the World team 6-4 at Chase Field. On August 18, however, Harper's season came to a premature end when he suffered a right hamstring strain severe enough that he had to be carried off the field by trainers. As the minor league season was two weeks from its conclusion, the team decided that it would be best to shut him down if he did not show quick improvement. At the time of his injury, Harper had been batting .256 with three home runs and 12 RBI in 129 at bats for Harrisburg.

Although he was still on the disabled list at the time that AFL rosters for the 2011 season were released, Harper was once again named to the Scottsdale Scorpions, and was anticipated to make a full recovery by the time the season started in October. There, he met and befriended Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels, a first-round pick in the 2009 MLB Draft and another highly-touted prospect. Despite the presence of both of these minor league stars, with Harper leading the team with a .333 batting average, six home runs, and 26 RBI in 25 games, the Scorpions finished last in the AFL's East Division with a 14–22 record.

2013–2014
On Opening Day in 2013, Harper's solo home runs in his first-two at bats were the only runs scored by either team as Washington defeated the Miami Marlins. Only 20 years old at the time, he became the fourth-youngest MLB player to hit a home run in the first game of his team's season, the youngest to hit two, and was the first National or Montreal Expo to hit home runs in their first two season at bats. Two early injuries seemed to set a course for his season. First, a collision with the outfield wall at Dodger Stadium in April resulted in 11 stitches and made Harper hesitatnt to charge after balls. Then, a battle with bursitis in his left knee caused Harper to miss 31 games, including most of June. Despite these setbacks, Harper was named to the starting lineup for his second consecutive All-Star game, becoming the youngest All-Star starter since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1990. He was also the second-youngest player to appear in the Home Run Derby, again behind Griffey Jr., and was the first member of the Nationals to appear in the Derby since its 1985 creation. He came in second in the tournament, with his 24 home runs behind Yoenis Cespedes's 32. Harper played 118 games in 2013, batting .274 with 20 home runs and 58 RBI in 424 at bats. He underwent knee surgery over the offseason and spent the winter building his strength in order to be fully healthy in time for spring training.

Harper's 2014 season was limited by injury. In mid-April, his speed was hindered by tightness in his quadriceps, culminating in being pulled mid-game by manager Matt Williams for a perceived "lack of hustle". Then, on April 25, while attempting to slide into third base during a game against the San Diego Padres, Harper landed awkwardly into the base and tore the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his left thumb. The tear required surgical reparation, and Harper was expected to return to the field no earlier than July. Before he could begin his minor league rehabilitation assignments, Harper's doctor recommended that he increase mobility in the surgically-repaired thumb by playing video games. He was able to return on June 30, playing in left field and batting sixth in the lineup. Although fully healed by his return, Harper remained skittish of re-injuring his thumb throughout the season: during a game in August, he appeared to aggravate the injury on a hard single against the Atlanta Braves, and later said that he was fine, but that the reaction was a combination of vibrations from his baseball bat and fear of further ligament damage.

Appearing in only 100 games due to injury, Harper batted .273 in 2014, with 13 home runs and 32 RBI in 352 at bats. After the season ended, he agreed to a two-year, $7.5 million contract extension with the Nationals. Harper had also planned to participate in the 2014 MLB Japan All-Star Series that November, but had to withdraw due to personal and family commitments.

2016–2018
Harper's 100th career home run was also his first career grand slam and the game-winning run in a 6-2 win over the Braves on April 14, 2016,
 * 2016
 * 2017
 * 2018

2019
On March 2, 2019, Harper signed a 13-year, $330 million contract with Nationals division rivals the Philadelphia Phillies. At the time, it was the largest contract offered to any North American athlete in sports history, surpassing the $300 million and $325 million contract extension that Giancarlo Stanton had signed with the Miami Marlins in 2014. Less than three weeks later, Mike Trout eclipsed Harper's record by signing a $430 million contract extension with the Los Angeles Angels. Rather than continuing to wear No. 34 for the Phillies, Harper changed his jersey number to 3, telling reporters that he "thought Roy Halladay should be the last one to wear" No. 34 for Philadelphia. During the introductory press conference for his new team, Harper was mocked for a misstep in which he told reporters that he wanted to "bring a title back to D.C." rather than Philadelphia.

2020
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the indefinite delay of the 2020 MLB season, Harper returned home to Nevada and continued an exercise regimen as he waited for baseball to return. The season was further delayed by a series of disagreements between the league and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) over the schedule structure of a shortened season, as well as whether or not players would take a salary cut. That May, Harper proposed a potential MLB schedule on his Instagram page that would divide teams geographically into East and West conferences rather than the traditional National/American League split, would involve 135 games in a span of 138 days, and would conclude with a round robin playoff tournament culminating in a traditional World Series.

On July 6, MLB announced that the 2020 regular season would consist of 60 games beginning on July 24.

2021: Second MVP award
Harper showed tentative optimism for the Phillies going into the 2021 season, telling reporters on opening day that, "It's gonna be a tough division, I've said that all spring, but we're a tough team as well."

On April 28, Génesis Cabrera of the St. Louis Cardinals accidentally hit Harper in the face with a 97 mph fastball. Harper left the game but assured fans later over Instagram that he had not suffered any serious damage. Despite minimal physical damage, Harper suffered a number of mental barriers at the plate after the incident: for instance, while practicing his hitting against live pitchers, he requested to face only left-handers, as Cabrera had been left-handed. He faced left-handed pitchers 29 times in the month of May, striking out 13 times.

2022
On April 11, three days into the lockout-delayed 2022 season, Harper strained the common flexor tendon of his right elbow while making a throw to home plate. While the injury affected his ability to field the ball, he felt no discomfort while batting, and the implementation of the designated hitter in the NL allowed Harper to remain in the lineup. He continued to produce offensively in this new position: by May 18, Harper had a .305 batting average, nine home runs, and 27 RBI, as well as an MLB-leading 24 extra-base hits. He was named the NL Player of the Week around that time after batting .600 in a seven-game stretch against the Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers. With no improvement in his elbow pain, however, Harper was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) on May 12, for which he underwent a platelet-rich plasma injection three days later. While facing the San Diego Padres on June 26, Harper fractured his thumb when he was hit by a 97.2 mph fastball from starting pitcher Blake Snell. At the time, he was batting .318 with 15 home runs and 48 RBI.

Other appearances
In November 2018, San Diego Studio announced that Harper would be the cover athlete for the PlayStation 4 video game MLB The Show 19. As Harper was a free agent at the time of the announcement, a placeholder cover for MLB The Show 19 depicted him out of baseball uniform; once his contract with Philadelphia was finalized, Sony released the official cover art, depicting Harper in a red-and-white pinstripe Phillies uniform.

Personal life
Harper and his longtime girlfriend Kayla Varner, a soccer player for the Ohio State Buckeyes, became engaged in May 2014, but their planned January 2015 wedding did not happen. In July 2016, Harper and Varner announced their reengagement, and they were married at the San Diego California Temple that December. Harper's Washington teammates Jayson Werth and Trea Turner, as well as general manager Mike Rizzo, attended the postnuptial celebrations. The couple's first child, Krew Aron Harper, was born in Las Vegas on August 22, 2019. Their daughter, Brooklyn Elizabeth Harper, was born in November 2020.

Harper is a practicing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). In accordance with church teachings, Harper abstains from alcohol, although he will occasionally drink coffee before games. In 2012, a Toronto reporter asked the 19-year-old Harper, who was in the city for a series against the Toronto Blue Jays, if he planned to take advantage of the lower drinking age in Canada, to which Harper responded, "I'm not answering that. That's a clown question, bro." The response became an Internet meme, appearing on T-shirts and other Under Armour merchandise, and was even used by American politicians like Harry Reid and Josh Earnest. Although male members of the LDS Church are generally asked to serve a mission between the ages of 18 and 25, Harper elected to continue his baseball career instead, telling reporters, "I always thought that my Heavenly Father upstairs always just wanted me to be a walking Book of Mormon, you could say. I knew that I could touch a lot of people's lives playing and trying to be the best Mormon that I can be on and off the field."

Harper has said that his favorite MLB player is his Phillies teammate J. T. Realmuto, who he first encountered during NL East games against Realmuto's original team, the Miami Marlins. After both players joined the Phillies, they formed a close friendship. During the 2020 season, the final year of Realmuto's contract with the Phillies, Harper repeatedly pushed the team to re-sign the catcher, wearing Realmuto shirts and jerseys during practices and shouting "Sign J. T.!" during a Phillies media event.