“I mean, he's worked his tail off to be here and be part of this team. “What he's done to come back is just remarkable,” Long said. Now it looks like pregame work in addition to batting practice, fielding throws from second, taking fungoes. When he was 19, that might have looked like stealing home and occasionally running into walls full-speed. “It takes a couple of years to kind of get into your own and understand what works for you,” Harper said, “being yourself and being comfortable being yourself.” Players can have the same goal but get there different ways. That’s the distinction, and it dovetails with a game-wide shift toward embracing a greater level of individuality - as long as it is geared toward winning - that Harper has lived and influenced. “You never want to change anybody,” Harper said as he works to execute a change of his own volition. He wants every teammate to find what works for them, whether they learn it from him or Trea Turner or Schwarber or Realmuto. Harper, though, doesn’t think younger players necessarily need to emulate him. “Once that happened, I was like, 'All right, well, it's kind of a revolving door over there right now,'” Harper said, citing his desire to help 26-year-old “big-time third baseman” Alec Bohm, who has often been shifting to play first, get back to his usual position. In this case, Harper volunteered, bringing the idea up to Dave Dombrowski, the team’s president of baseball operations, and manager Rob Thomson after Hoskins went down, while he was still on the rehab trail himself. Positional flexibility has been en vogue in MLB for a while, but it still raises eyebrows when stars on Harper’s level move - such as Freddie Freeman’s brief foray at third base or Mookie Betts’ dabbling at shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I think anytime you can look at a superstar doing that,” Stott said, “it's like, why am I complaining about something if he's over here, one of the best players in the game, changing his stuff?” Realmuto stay in the lineup with more rest. It would reopen the designated hitter slot to help fellow veterans Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and J.T. That’s part of why Harper at first could have positive ripple effects, as young shortstop Bryson Stott pointed out. 500 after last season’s cathartic October run. Harper stepping in at first would certainly help fill a gap for the Phillies, who are once again off to a slower-than-desired start and hovering around.
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