Phillies’ Bryce Harper declines to say ‘anything more’ about his confrontation with commissioner Rob Manfred

CHICAGO — Bryce Harper did not dispute reports Monday that he confronted MLB commissioner Rob Manfred over the issue of a salary cap in baseball.

“Everybody saw the words and everything that happened, but I don’t want to say anything more than that,” Harper said. “I want to focus on my teammates, and our union as a whole, and just worry about winning baseball.”

A major league source confirmed that Harper spoke out near the beginning of the Phillies’ hourlong meeting with Manfred before a July 21 game at Citizens Bank Park, and told the commissioner to leave the clubhouse if he was there to discuss an eventual change in the sport’s economic system to include a salary cap.

The commissioner’s office wasn’t planning to issue a statement on the interaction between Harper and Manfred, which was first reported by ESPN.com and the New York Post.

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In the past, Harper has not been publicly outspoken on labor issues. He said that he prefers to keep those discussions “within these limits of the clubhouse doors.” Harper declined to get into details about why he is opposed to a salary cap.

“I’ve talked labor, and I’ve done it in a way that I don’t need to talk to the media about it,” he said. “I don’t need it out there. It has nothing to do with media or anybody else. … I’ve always been very vocal, just not in a way that people can see.”

But reached by The Inquirer, Harper’s agent, Scott Boras, elaborated on why the Phillies star felt the need to push back against Manfred.

“Young players need to talk with veterans like Harp,” Boras said. “Harp has been fighting the consequences of caps his whole life. Harp received the potential for a total of $10.9 million, $9.9 million plus $1 million in roster bonuses, for his draft signing in 2010.

“Two years later, in 2012, a draft cap was implemented and the top-paid player in the draft, Byron Buxton, got $6 million. Fifteen drafts later, the top player is receiving $9.25 million, well below Harper.

“Harp knows what caps can do to players’ rights, especially young players.”

Since the 99-day lockout in 2021-22, Manfred has met annually with all 30 teams in an attempt to improve his relationship with the players. Accompanied by former player Mark DeRosa, who now works for MLB, Manfred held back-to-back meetings with the Phillies and Red Sox last week in Philadelphia.

One source was irritated by the timing of the meetings, which occurred when teams would typically be preparing for a game.

With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire after next season — Dec. 1, 2026, to be precise — the owners’ desire for a salary cap is expected to be the primary disagreement between the sides. The Major League Baseball Players Association has long been opposed to a cap. Two weeks ago, at the All-Star Game, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark described the idea of a salary cap as “institutionalized collusion.”

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Details of the Phillies’ meeting with Manfred — including Harper’s interaction with him — aren’t widely known. But Manfred broadly discussed his message to players in a meeting with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America at the All-Star Game in Atlanta two weeks ago.

“When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them that a salary-cap system would be a good thing,” Manfred said. “Literally what I say to them is, I identify a problem that we need to work together, and that is that there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem. I never use the word ‘salary’ within one [word] of ‘cap.’

“What I do say to them is, in addressing this competitive issue that’s real, we should think about whether this system is the perfect system from a players’ perspective. My only goal there is not to convince them of one system or another, but it is to convince them that everybody going to the table with an open mind to try to address a problem that’s fan-driven leads to a better collective bargaining process and a better outcome.”

Harper, seven seasons into a 13-year, $330 million contract, doesn’t often weigh in on baseball’s labor matters, though his lack of public statements shouldn’t be confused with apathy. Asked after the resolution of the collective bargaining agreement in 2022 if he followed MLB’s work stoppage, Harper said he was in touch with several high-ranking union members, including Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer.

“I was with it every day,” he said then. “I think you want to know what’s going on. It’s your job, it’s what you do, so definitely was with it every day.”

There’s concern within the sport that another lockout will ensue when the CBA expires after next season, with the possibility that a work stoppage could drag into the 2027 season.

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Although Manfred has not publicly said the owners are hell-bent on a salary cap, it has been among their longest pursuits. Among the major North American professional sports leagues, MLB is the only one without a cap.

“A cap is not about a partnership,” Clark said at the All-Star Game. “A cap is not about growing the game. That’s not what a cap is about. As has been offered publicly, a cap is about franchise values and profits. That’s what a cap is about.

“If there are ways that we need to improve the existing system, to polish some of the rough edges that otherwise exist, we have made proposals to do that. We will continue to make proposals to do that.”