Phillies 2-Time MVP Confronts MLB Commissioner In Clubhouse: Report

Each season, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred visits all 30 team clubhouses in an effort to improve relations between players and the league office, and to brief them on coming changes to the game. But his visit to the Philadelphia Phillies clubhouse last Monday did not work out quite how he probably imagined.

Manfred found himself going “nose to nose” with one of the game’s biggest names, who confronted him using a harsh expletive, according to a report Monday by ESPN senior baseball insider Jeff Passan.

That star player was the Phillies’ eight-time All-Star first baseman and outfielder Bryce Harper, who in the seventh year of a 13-season, $330 million contract remains among MLBs highest-paid players.

The issue that caused Harper and Manfred to go “nose to nose,” according to Passan: Manfred’s reported plan to implement an MLB salary cap, similar to the caps implemented in the NFL, NHL and — though in somewhat different and more complicated fashion — the NBA.

In the midst of the meeting at Citizen’s Bank Park, according to the Passan report, Harper “stood nose to nose with Rob Manfred” and told him “get the (expletive) out of our clubhouse” if he planned to so much as discuss a salary cap.

The salary cap issue is expected to be a top point for discussion during the upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations between MLB and the player’s union, which will come to a head following next season.

“There is expectation that the owners will lock the players out on Dec. 1, 2026 with the conclusion of the CBA,” wrote MLB insiders Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post on Monday.

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“There is widespread concern within the game about how much (if any) of the 2027 season will be played as there are hardliners in management that insist a salary cap must be part of a new CBA against the historic imperative in this union not to accept it,” Heyman and Sherman reported.

Harper also told Manfred in the meeting that players were “not scared to lose 162 games,” in other words, to strike or be locked out for an entire season, to stop the imposition of a salary cap, Passan reported.

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Manfred never actually spoke the phrase “salary cap” during his hour-plus meeting with Phillies players, according to Passan’s report, based on information he received from his sources. But when he began to brief players on economic issues facing the baseball industry, Harper became triggered.

Harper signed his contract with the Phillies in 2019. As a result, though his salary is certainly among the game’s elite, his ranking may not be as high as would be generally assumed.

Per figures compiled by the sports business site Spotrac, Harper will be paid $27,538,462 for this season.

That ranks him 23rd in MLB, behind New York Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodon at No. 22 ($27,833,333), and one place ahead of another Yankee, outfielder Cody Bellinger who will make $27,500,000 this season.

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