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Bryce Harper has strong response for Instagram critic

Bryce Harper is entering his second season in Philadelphia. (Ian D’Andrea)

Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Bryce Harper has taken as much criticism as anyone in baseball since breaking into the league in 2012. He’s used to it by now. But one comment on his latest Instagram post really didn’t sit well.

Tuesday, Harper posted a video of him working out as he waits for the 2020 MLB season to begin:

The post was innocent enough, but one Instagram user thought he could make a COVID-19 related joke at Harper’s expense in the comments. While his comment got 88 likes, it also got a swift response from Harper:

In his first season with the Phillies, Harper hit .260 with 35 home runs, 114 RBIs, 99 walks and a 4.6 fWAR.

He did hit .249 in his final season with the Washington Nationals – 2018 – but also slugged 34 home runs and led the National League with 130 walks.

After his National League MVP season of 2015 – a season that saw him hit .330 in one of the most dominant offensive seasons in recent memory – Harper did regress to hitting just .243 in 2016. However, Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated later reported that Harper played through a shoulder injury that was so severe that he couldn’t even do upper-body weight workouts for a large chunk of the season.

For what it’s worth, Harper’s career batting average is .276. He was scorching hot in Spring Training before COVID-19 forced baseball to postpone the start of the 2020 season. You get the sense that if there is a 2020 season, Harper will put together one of his most complete campaigns, one that ends with him posting a batting average not even in the same zip code as .240.