Philadelphia Phillies infielder Bryce Harper had a heated argument with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who downplayed the significance of the back-and-forth between the two. Harper and Mandred’s heated exchange over CBA and its looming labor battle between the league and its players. Bryce never revealed specifics when asked about his spat with Mandred. However, he said he would remain “vocal.”
Manfred says his exchange with Harper has been blown out of proportion, per ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.
“I think more has been made out of this than needs to be made out of it,” Manfred said. “Bryce expressed his views. At the end of the meeting, we shook hands and went our separate ways. Not all that significant.”
A reporter asked Manfred if his argument with Harper was an accurate representation of the divide between Major League Baseball and its players.
“It was an individual picking a particular way to express himself,” Manfred said. “And I don’t think you need to make more out of it than that.”
With concerns looming of a potential lockout after the 2026 MLB campaign, the commissioner related the problems to the league’s past 27 seasons since its previous lockout in 1998.
“We haven’t had a work stoppage that affected a season since that time,” Manfred said. “Three of those deals I was chief negotiator; two of them I was a commissioner. That’s a pretty good record, and I think we can do it again.”
Bryce Harper’s NSFW explosion with Rob Manfred
Despite MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s dismissive response to his argument with Phillies infielder Bryce Harper, the MLB world responded to Manfred and Harper’s disagreement. The angry replies were mutual as this wasn’t a one-sided explosion between player and commissioner.
Harper said he stood his ground, per The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Lochlahn March.
“I’ve always been very vocal [in labor discussions], just not in a way that people can see,” Harper said.
The two reportedly stood nose-to-nose as tensions grew. Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos revealed what he saw from his POV.
“Both of ’em,” Castellanos said. “The commissioner giving it back to Bryce and Bryce giving it back to the commissioner. That’s Harp. He’s been doing this since he was 15 years old. It’s just another day. I wasn’t surprised.”
Castellanos confirmed that when the topic of MLB’s economy arose, things took a turn for the worse.
“Rob seems to be in a pretty desperate place on how important it is to get this salary cap because he’s floating the word lockout two years in advance,” Castellanos said.
It’ll be interesting to see where things go from here.
