Bryce Harper was named 2015 NL MVP after one of the greatest seasons in baseball history. However, Harper hit a wall last season as he struggled to get it going. Can the former MVP bounce back in the upcoming season or will he falter once again?
The 24-year-old superstar burst onto the scene in 2012 and he immediately made an impact for the Nationals. He struggled to hit the ball on a consistent basis until his MVP year two seasons ago when he hit .330 with 42 home runs, 99 RBIs and 118 runs scored, per Baseball Reference.
Harper cemented himself as one of the best players in baseball. Many thought that he will replicate his MVP season last year but a May series against the Chicago Cubs changed it all, as reported by Eddie Matz of ESPN.
Matz noted that the four-game series in Chicago on the first week of May had a great negative effect on Harper. He stepped to the plate 19 times and he walked 13 times, four of which were intentional. In the finale of the series, he tied a major league record by walking six times.
Harper also became the first player in MLB history to reach base safely seven times without a hit. Besides the six walks that game, he reached base after getting hit by a pitch. One NL executive told Matz that Cubs manager Joe Maddon's tactic might have broken the 2015 NL MVP.
"When the Cubs pitched around him, if he was someone who had greater maturity and self-control, which I think he will still develop, he would've said, 'F*** it, if they're gonna walk me, I'll take it.' But what he did was, he started to feel like he needed to produce and be the guy," the NL executive said.
Harper finished the season with a career-low batting average of .243 but he was able to hit 24 home runs and 86 RBIs. But can he bounce back next season?
According to Buster Olney of ESPN, Harper is still the second-best right fielder in the MLB. He believes Harper will get back to basics and rely on his hitting mechanics rather than put himself in an anxious and terrible position to hit the ball.
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