Bryce Harper’s ‘frustration’ mounting amid early-season struggles

Bryce Harper’s numbers aren’t bad to start 2025, and neither is the Philadelphia Phillies’ 19-15 record. But the Phillies have championship expectations and Harper is tired of what, by his standards, is a slump.

Even after homering on Sunday for the first time since April 18, Harper unloaded his frustrations following the Phillies’ 10-inning loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks..

“I’m just frustrated on a bigger level,” Harper said. “[I] Just want to come through for the team and play well. And obviously, I’ve been through ruts in my career and gone through ups and downs. And, worse than what I’m on right now. But, just frustrated for the fans, frustrated for my team.”

Harper is slashing .234/.364/.422 with six home runs and a 119 OPS+ through 34 games so far. He’s shown some more life at the plate recently, picking up two hits against Arizona Sunday and hitting in five of his last six games.

It still pales in comparison to the MVP-like numbers he’s used to posting and rather than his homer, what stuck with him more on Sunday was when he came up short in extras. Harper had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the 10th but flied out to strand two runners on base.

“Even that last moment right there against [Jalen] Beeks, just not coming through — was super frustrated for that,” Harper said. “So, I just want to play better. Got to play better. Take better at-bats and all that kind of stuff. So just got to be a better ballplayer.”

Alec Bohm is also off to a slow start for the Phillies