Phillies' Bryce Harper cusses out Rob Manfred during meeting

[metirish]

Salary cap talk got him riled ,unlocked article

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45842533/sources-phillies-bryce-harper-tells-mlb-boss-get-clubhouse

Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper stood nose to nose with Rob Manfred during a meeting between the Major League Baseball commissioner and the team last week, telling him to "get the f--- out of our clubhouse" if Manfred wanted to talk about the potential implementation of a salary cap, sources familiar with the meeting told ESPN on Monday.

Edited July 28, 2025 by metirish

[Gwreck]

Wish this has been his response to the fake extra innings runner too.

[metirish]

True , it will be interesting to see what, if anything happens after Dec next year

[smg58]

Dear Rob Manfred, please don't give Mets fans any more reasons to like Bryce Harper, it's really uncomfortable.

[MFS62]

Good for Harper.

Someone has to go ratshit crazy on Manfred, sooner rather than later, to stop him from the mental funk he's in that's killing the game we love.

Later

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

It was pretty contentious last go-round and it's not going to get better. I'd prefer they weren't fighting

[Gwreck]

Forget any on-field qualms that may exist with what he’s

done to the game, Manfred is the guy who said that lockouts at the end of CBA terms should be the “new norm” and that they are a “positive.” And now he’s going around telling players how they would have supposedly made more money with a salary cap.

Maybe there’s more to it but that just doesn’t seem like a guy who’s operating in good faith.

[MFS62]

Forget any on-field qualms that may exist with what he’s

done to the game, Manfred is the guy who said that lockouts at the end of CBA terms should be the “new norm” and that they are a “positive.” And now he’s going around telling players how they would have supposedly made more money with a salary cap.

Maybe there’s more to it but that just doesn’t seem like a guy who’s operating in good faith.

 

They make more money with a CAP?

THAT sounds like somebody who isn't operating with a full deck.

Later

[Centerfield]

Dear Rob Manfred, please don't give Mets fans any more reasons to like Bryce Harper, it's really uncomfortable.

 

Yeah. This.

[Fman99]

It was pretty contentious last go-round and it's not going to get better. I'd prefer they weren't fighting

 

Just had a flashback to my teen years.

"STOP FIGHTING AND YELLING AT EACH OTHER ALL THE TIME!"

[Cowtipper]

Harper has actually matured A LOT over the past few years.

[kcmets]

Dear Rob Manfred, please don't give Mets fans any more reasons to like Bryce Harper, it's really uncomfortable.

 

This is really funny!

[Frayed Knot]

It's certainly disturbing to hear that the owners (Manfred is just their mouthpiece whether he agrees with this notion or not, he probably does) have not only NOT given up on the idea of a salary cap but may be more determined to get one despite the fact that they've never come close to even coming close to getting one while also showing that they'll fail to stay cohesive long before the union does.

I'm sure Manfred's message here, as he bunny-hops from clubhouse to clubhouse, is to try and make the case that their (yet-to-be) propsed cap will also come with a floor and therefore the net result will NOT be total lower payrolls overall but merely the same amount (or more!!) distributed differently and more uniformly. But this is a similar type of theoretical scheme that politicians sometimes offer where they think that they're really, really good at manipulating the economy and that they know what prices and wages should be much better than that pesky free market does. And how well has MLB's pseudo-salary-cap, the luxury tax plus revenue sharing system that's been in place in one form or another for years now, resulted in more equitable payrolls? This attempted next step sounds like: 'OK, our attempts to 'correct' the inequalities have so far failed miserably, so what we need to do now is to take the same concept and expand it further!!!'

[MFS62]

If they're going to change anything, I'd like them to eliminate the "Small market" benefits, such as additional compensation picks. St Louis is a cash machine, but because of the population of the city, it is considered a small market team. Those picks, plus their cash situation, give them an unfair advantage over some larger markets.

And I'm all for a salary floor. It should be equal to the amount each team gets from the national tv contracts. After that, other baseball operations could be funded out of other operating revenues (local tv and radio, ticket and concession sales, parking fees, etc.) That would open up smaller market teams to free agents if the teams were required to spend the money.

Later

[Edgy MD]

To what small market benefits do you refer?

[MFS62]

To what small market benefits do you refer?

 

"Small market" benefits, such as additional compensation picks

 

RIF.

Later

[Edgy MD]

I read fine. The competitive balance picks are awarded mostly based on revenue, not market size. To the extent that market size is a factor, the Cardinals are not treated as a team with a small market, but a mid-market.

Also, I read fine.

[MFS62]

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-draft-competitive-balance-rounds-set-for-2025

Since 2017, Major League Baseball has used a formula that combines revenue, winning percentage and market score to award Draft picks to teams that fall in the bottom 10 in revenue or market size.

 

I was just going on what I read on the MLB site. IIRC the Cards Have received compensation. It could be they got a compensation pick because they lost a player. And if that was the reason, they lost a player because they didn't want to pay him. That is a baseball decision, not a financial hardship one. SO, IMO they shouldn't get a compensation pick.

Later

[Edgy MD]

New reportage of this incident (coming from a secondary or tertiary or deeper source, so take it as you will) has a lieutenant of Commissioner Manfred's circling back to threaten Harper after the incident.

 

“Don’t ever say that again to the commissioner. Don’t ever disrespect him again publicly like that. That’s how people end up in a ditch.“

[Frayed Knot]

Maybe that's what happened with Jimmy Hoffa ... he cussed out Bowie Kuhn one day then was never heard from again.