Five Things Bryce Harper Would Change About MLB

The Phillies star says he’s always thinking about how to make the game better.

Harper wishes some of the pitch timer and player timeout rules would be altered. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

In the latest edition of Sports Illustrated print magazine, Bryce Harper opens up on exactly how long he wants to keep playing, why he loves the biggest moments, his dietary regimen he has brought into the Philadelphia Phillies clubhouse and many other topics. Harper, who turns 32 next month, is a student, ambassador and caretaker of the game of baseball—so much so that he plans to coach college baseball when he retires from playing.

“I talk to Scott [Boras, his agent] a lot and I tell him, ‘I want to coach after I’m done, but I want to go to college.’ That’s my dream,” he says. “I want to do it really bad. Scott always gives me crap. He's like, ‘You’re going to be a Hall of Famer … [and] you're going to go back and coach college kids?’

“I just want to put the baseball [playing] version of myself behind me and put my coach’s cap on. I want to do it that way at a college. I would never want to do it at the Major League level.

“I could be an owner on the Major League level. I would love to do that. I’d rather own and do that. I would like to be an owner/president. I would like to do what [Phillies president of baseball operations Dave] Dombrowski does, but ownership-wise. So, I'd like to be [like Derek] Jeter [was with the Miami Marlins].

“That's like my biggest dream. But coaching college would be great. Yeah, I think that would be awesome to work with kids at that age. It’s just a different vibe. Kind of different mindset, too. You know, I don’t want to lie to kids, either. Kids get lied to so much at the college level nowadays, too.”

Would he prefer a big-time college program, such as an SEC school?

“Yeah, I would,” he says. “Just for the approach of I want a good team, too.”

In the meantime, Harper is always thinking about how to make the major league game better. He shared those ideas with SI. Here are five changes Harper says he would like to see. Call them The Harper Rules.

1. Give the pitcher one timeout per plate appearance.

Hitters currently get one timeout per plate appearance. Pitchers get none.

“They need to give the pitcher a timeout,” Harper says. “I don’t have a problem with that.”

2. If a plate appearance extends to a 10th pitch, the hitter or pitcher gets another timeout or the allotted time between pitches with the bases empty extends from 15 seconds to 18 seconds.

“I think if you get to 10 pitches as a hitter, I should be able to call another timeout,” he says. “Just because you’re at that threshold, man. It’s like you get deep into it in that at bat and he’s dying out there and I'm dying in the batter’s box … like we're freaking out and we’ve got to rush through it still.

“Long at bats and long innings are killers on pitchers with the pitch timer. I love the pitch timer. But I’ve seen it happen a lot. Even if you get to 10 pitches and you raise it to 18 seconds after the 10-pitch mark that would be good. You know, just to kind of give us a little bit more time to breathe.

“There are certain umpires that actually do a really good job of like cleaning the plate [to give more time]. They’re all the older guys.”

3. Umpires should be assigned to one of two groups: home plate umpires and base umpires.

“You should have the best ball-and-strike guys working the plate all the time,” he says. “Right now, I think they’re behind the plate only two games a week.”

With one week remaining to this season, no umpire has worked more than 33 games behind the plate. The six highest-rated ball-and-strike umpires have worked between 17 and 30 games this season, or around one game per week.

“I think it should be four games a week and you get an increase in pay,” he says.

4. If MLB adopts a challenge system on balls and strikes, give each hitter one challenge.

Triple A rules allow each team three challenges per game. The batter, pitcher or catcher can use the challenge, which is checked against the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS). Teams retain the challenge if they are successful. The ABS challenge system will not be used in MLB until at least 2026.

“Each guy should have one, not each team. It shouldn’t be team oriented,” Harper says. “If I get it right, I get it back. If I get it wrong, I’m out. Automatic. And your challenge is gone. So, for the rest of the game, you don’t have a challenge, and you’re 0-for-1. But, if you get it right, you're back. Like, you're good. So, you better be right, dude.

“Because the thing is, if you don’t do that, then every single guy in the batter’s box is going to sit there and go, ‘Well, hold on. Time. That's wrong.’ Tap your helmet.

“But if not, you're going, ‘Oh s---, I’ve got to think about this for a second.’

“I’m all about the human element. I love the human element. You know, yeah, the strike zone is a little bit different. I get it. Obviously, I’m mad when a guy throws me a high heater this far above the zone, and [the umpire] calls a strike, and I'm sitting there going, ‘What are you doing?’ I didn't say a word, but I'm sitting there going like, ‘What are we doing?’ So that's a human element I hate.

“But if a guy's throwing a slider at 97 [mph] and he freaking goes here [off the edge] and he calls strike three, that sucks. Yeah. It’s a ball. So that's why I want the system.

“We were [on the road] this year and it was first and second. [The pitcher] throws me a slider, like right here. Three-two count. Strike three. I'm like, ‘Dude, come on, that's a ball. Yeah, that's a ball.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, well, I got it there.’

“I tell him, ‘I’m going to let you know. I’m going to go check it, and I’m going to let you know.’ He goes, ‘Okay, sounds good.’  So I went in, checked it. Ball. I went back out. He came up to me, he goes, ‘Where you got it?’ I said, ‘It’s a ball. It’s in your buffer zone, but it’s a ball.’  He goes, ‘Thanks for letting me know. I’m sorry. My bad.’ I said, ‘I appreciate that, man. Thank you.’

“You know, I hate the stupid buffer zones, too. It's a ball. It's a ball. It's a ball. I know there are no buffer zones [in real time]. It’s ball/strike, strike/ball. That's it.”

5. Like the NHL draft system, players drafted and signed by an MLB organization are eligible to play in college.

“Guys have the opportunity to go to school and have a life while chasing that dream,” Harper says. “You could go one to four years. Get rid of the lower-level minor leagues. Double A and Triple A only.

“Those kids have an opportunity to get degrees and actually thrive in life after baseball instead of wondering what is going to happen if they don’t make it after 10 years.

“It works for Latin America as well as every other country. Just like NHL guys getting drafted from overseas. And if you think your guy from high school is good enough to play in AA right out of high school then throw him in there, but you really don’t have to.”

Harper says MLB draft rights would be different from those in the NHL, in which teams can hold a player’s rights before and through college for six or seven years.

“Baseball wouldn’t work that way,” he says, “They would have to have three to five [years] on rights. And then they would have to figure it out. I don’t know how that would work, but it would work.

“If you believe the guy is ready after one year of college, he’s yours. And so forth.”