Bryce Harper gets rid of the 'elephant,' everyone knows this could be last season with Nationals

WASHINGTON – They flocked toward him in waves Monday afternoon, with hundreds of reporters and camera crews stopping by to chat, get a glimpse, grab a sound bite, for perhaps the final time this season in a large media gathering.

Bryce Harper, the face of the Nationals franchise, and really for the youth movement in today’s game, will be the center showpiece in Tuesday’s All-Star Game. This is his ballpark. His stage. And perhaps his last glorious moment for the only professional organization he has ever known.

Harper is a free agent at the season’s conclusion, and if he departs, it’s hardly the way he envisioned exiting the big stage. He’s hitting a career-low .214, the Nationals are the league’s biggest disappointment at 48-48 and in third place, 5½ games behind the Phillies, and there have been no talks about a long-term extension since last winter.

Who knows, maybe being a free agent in line to sign the richest contract in baseball history and trying to lead Washington to its first World Series title since 1924 before he departs, might be too much for a 25-year-old to handle.

Harper had news for the amateur psychologists who gathered around to listen. He insisted over and over Monday that there is no stress. No burden. No anxiety. Nothing.

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Then again, considering he was on the cover of “Sports Illustrated” at 16, the first pick in the country at 17 and in the major leagues by the time he was 19, how could he possibly even recognize pressure?

Well, he concedes, he felt it once.

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It was when he was 16, graduating early from high school, enrolling in junior college and suddenly wishing he could go back to high school.

“I was 16 years old, just got back from Team USA,” Harper says, “and I got absolutely dominated for two weeks prior to our season. I got punched out nine or 10 times in 12 at-bats against my own team. I sat there and thought, ‘You know what, I don’t want to do this. Man, I’d like to go back to high school right now.’

“It was one of the most pressured situations I’ve ever been in. If I don’t have a good year that year, I might never have played baseball. I might never have been drafted.

“It’s those moments that make you who you are. I said, ‘OK, you got to cowboy up and do the things you need to do.’ A week later, we started our fall ball season, and I went deep in my first (at-bat).

“I guess the rest is history.”

So although he has never hit worse in his major league career, his team is grossly underachieving, and every moment on the field is being heavily scrutinized and magnified, he wants to know how anyone could possibly believe he’s stressing out now.

“I’m 25 years old, I get to play this game of baseball every single day,” Harper says, “so what pressure do I have to feel? What pressure do I feel running out to right field every single day?

“It’s the game I love to play. I get chills. There’s nothing greater than going out there, putting on No. 34, being Bryce Harper, and playing the game I love to play.”

Sure, Harper hates looking up and seeing that .214 batting average shining brightly on the huge center-field scoreboard each night. He’s hitting more than 100 points lower than a year ago, when he batted .319. He was so frustrated during the last series in New York when he thought he ripped a single, only for the shift to turn it into a double play, that he barely ran to first base. He was heavily criticized and manager Dave Martinez addressed it the next day in a private conversation.

Simply, the frustration is the price of being a left-handed hitter these days, countering all of the shifts, and being pitched around as the most dangerous hitter in the Nationals lineup. He has already walked more times, a league-leading 78, than all of last season. Yet he has 23 homers, 54 RBI and 57 runs scored.

“I look up there and see my average as well,” Harper says, “and go, ‘Oh, man, that sucks.’ But then I look a little bit to the right and see 23 homers, RBI, walks, runs scored and things like that.

“Should I be hitting .300 or .280? Yeah, absolutely. But I am where I’m at, and hopefully the only way I can go is up.”

Besides, it’s not as if he lost it overnight, and being 25 he could be a decade away from even slowing down. No one believes he can’t return to glory.

Harper, who reiterated how much he loves playing in Washington and living in the city, says he has no idea whether his low batting average will have an impact on his free agency. Does this give the Nationals a better chance to sign him? Will other teams now shy away from him? Will he get less than fellow free agent shortstop Manny Machado?

“Everyone knew that at the beginning of the year this could possibly be my last year in D.C.,” Harper said. “There’s no elephant in the room. Everybody knows.”

The Phillies and Giants are expected to pursue Harper besides the Nationals in the offseason. Who knows, maybe even the Yankees, although the only time Harper appeared irritated in his 40-minute media session was when a New York reporter asked whether he shaved his beard in the Big Apple last month knowing the Yankees have a no facial-hair policy.

“I know exactly what you’re getting to,” Harper said. “No!”

The only “No” more emphatic was uttered by his agent, Scott Boras, when asked if he believed Harper’s value might be diminished. The way Boras views it, Harper’s value should be enhanced considering his home run and walk totals.

“When I put the mermaid in the shark tank,” Boras said, “is it not still the most beautiful fish? The reality of it is the game today with all of the shifts. Look, we are at record lows for batting average, record lows for balls in play. Do we really want this? Do the fans want this? The answer is no.

“You want to murder batting averages for left-handed sluggers. Well, you put four players on one side of the infield, and you basically are going to see a significant difference. Does it not say there are adjustments to be made, things to get done?

“And you got the gradient in Harp’s case that he’s seeing the fewest amount of strikes in the game. And the greatest gradient is how you respect the others. You don’t throw them strikes.”

Still, to Harper’s credit, he offers no excuses. He doesn’t want baseball to ban, or even limit, defensive shifts. He just wants to get better, become the best player in the game and be in the playoffs year after year, winning a World Series ring one day.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be here or what happens in the future,” Harper says. “I just want to enjoy the moment now. I want to be Bryce Harper.

“I love this game, and no matter how I’m hitting, that will never change.”