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The Philadelphia Phillies have cooled off significantly after a dream first half, and a significant factor is Bryce Harper’s power outage.
Since returning from a hamstring injury after the All-Star break, the two-time MVP has hit .233/.313/.411 with six homers in 42 games. He entered Friday without a home run since Aug. 9 and a barrel rate down from 15.1% in June to 2.7% in August, via Baseball Savant.
He said his wrist has bothered him since May. The elbow is more recent. Harper said he doesn’t recall a specific play or moment that irritated the wrist, only that it “just generally got worse. I’ve been grinding through that.” But with the postseason a little more than a month away, he said he is hopeful it will not be an issue in October.
“I don’t want to make excuses for what I do,” Harper said. “You know what I’m saying? I’ve just got to get through it. Hopefully it gets better, rather than getting worse. [The wrist’s] finally getting to the point where I feel like it’s turning a corner. My elbow is just like — there.”
