Bryce Harper is right to feel no regrets over leaving Nationals for Phillies

Bryce Harper deserves credit for his approach in having no regrets in joining the Philadelphia Phillies last offseason.

With the Washington Nationals punching their ticket to the World Series this week, baseball fans wasted little time bringing up the topic of whether Bryce Harper would feel regret over joining the Philadelphia Phillies in the offseason.

At the time of the Harper signing, the Phillies were expected to emerge as one of the top World Series contenders in the National League while the Nationals went through a year of rebuilding after losing one of the best outfielders in baseball.

Instead, Philadelphia’s first season with Harper would fail to live up to the high expectations, and to top the frustration off, the Phillies ended up finishing in fourth place when it came to the NL East standings.

Meanwhile, Washington found a way to overcome a poor start to the regular season, and eventually pull off a miraculous run to appear in the World Series, as they continue to wait to see if they will face the Houston Astros or New York Yankees.

From Harper’s perspective, it’s easy to make the case about the outfielder wondering what could have been if he stuck around with the Nationals since part of his decision to leave was due to the Phillies appearing to have a playoff-caliber roster.

However, Harper made it clear this week in a recent interview there are no regrets or hard feelings towards his decision to come to Philadelphia, which is exactly the approach Phillies fans love to see.

Just because Washington turned out to be the better team in 2019 doesn’t necessarily mean this will always be the case moving forward since Philadelphia could still benefit the most from having Harper for the long run.

Things certainly didn’t play out the way Harper and the Phillies thought it would this past season, but at least there won’t be any unnecessary drama over regretful comments by the star outfielder.

Once Philadelphia figures out their next manager after moving on from Gabe Kapler following two seasons of disappointment, Harper and company should be back in the World Series conversation in no time.

But until then, all eyes will be on whether Harper’s former team has what it takes to earn their first World Series title in franchise history, because even though Harper claims there are no regrets, a win by the Nationals will still sting for most Phillies fans.