The Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers just finished battling in an early season potential playoff preview. The Phillies came away with the series win, but the Dodgers are still the favorites this season thanks to their massive payroll.

The offseason featured the Dodgers adding or re-signing players like Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Teoscar Hernández, Tanner Scott, Clayton Kershaw, Hyesong Kim, Kirby Yates, Michael Conforto, Blake Treinen, Kiké Hernández, and Giovanny Gallegos. With the Dodgers in town, Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper was asked about the Dodgers’ offseason, and his answer raised eyebrows with some of his words.

“I don’t know if people will like this, but I feel like only losers complain about what they’re doing,” Harper said about the Dodgers’ deferral-heavy payroll, per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “I think they’re a great team. They’re a great organization.”

There are several ways to interpret this quote from Harper. First, he is correct in his statement that these are moves by a great team and organization. With the way Major League Baseball is set up, having no salary cap allows franchises to make these moves. This provides freedom to any organization willing to invest and be creative in constructing contracts.

Is Bryce Harper sending a message to the Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies front office?

Any team in baseball can pull off what the Dodgers did with their estimated $392 million payroll. The Dodgers’ moves are also highlighted to a second degree coming off the 2024 World Series title looking to go back and repeat, where fans want to see players go elsewhere and not over-stack one team that just captured the title.

Harper’s statement can also be read as highlighting the complaining by fans, hinting that if their favorite team was doing the same thing, then it would not be as big of an issue. Fans are mad that it hasn’t been their team acquiring the talent to compete and try to build a dynasty. The term “jealous” might have been better used here because that is more of what it feels like from baseball fans when seeing these Dodgers moves.

Another important thing to read into here is that Harper is always vocal, whether it’s about outside news or relates to the Phillies. Fans have criticized the front office over the team not doing enough at the deadline the last two seasons and this past offseason. On top of that, the potential of losing players like J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber in upcoming free agency will cause fans to be hoping for extensions.

In 2020, there was a chance Realmuto would hit free agency. Harper made his thoughts known on the team’s need to re-sign the catcher, he did not hide anything. He also spoke about wanting to sign Trea Turner in 2022. Most recently, Harper talked about being open to moving back to the outfield if the team got a first baseman.

The Phillies will be right there in the playoff hunt this season and will have an opportunity to make moves come July around the trade deadline. Harper wants this organization to be active and wants the front office to act similarly to the Dodgers and bring as much talent as possible.

All this is motivation for Phillies president of baseball operation Dave Dombrowski and managing partner John Middleton to be ready to sign players and make moves to keep making this team better while not worrying about spending. None of this should be looked at as a negative. It’s Harper simply wanting to win, and bring the World Series back to the city of Philadelphia.

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