Bryce Harper Says He Wants To Be Derek Jeter After He Retires

The Philadelphia Phillies superstar already has an idea of what he wants to do when he eventually retires from baseball.

Sep 21, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper (3) looks on during the game against the New York Mets at Citi Field / Lucas Boland-Imagn Images

With the regular season coming to an end this weekend, every member of the Philadelphia Phillies has their sights set on becoming legends in the city by delivering the franchise's third-ever World Series title.

The payoff would be a long time coming for multiple star players on this roster, but perhaps it would mean more for Bryce Harper than any other member of this team.

Deemed a prodigy growing up, he was a household name nationally when he was in high school before being selected No. 1 overall in the 2010 draft by the Washington Nationals. He made his Major League debut two years later when he was 19.

Luckily for Phillies fans, Harper decided to come to Philadelphia in 2019 on a 13-year, $330 million contract that changed the course of this franchise.

He's hoping he can make good on his promise to deliver a World Series championship to this city, and based on how how close they have been the past two seasons and how loaded this team is, they have a good chance of making that become a reality.

Even if it doesn't happen this year, Harper will have plenty more campaigns in a Phillies jersey while this window remains open.

The plan is he will eventually retire with Philadelphia, although that ideally doesn't come for a long, long time.

When it does, though, Harper already has an idea of what he wants to do when he hangs up the cleats, telling Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated that he would like to do what Hall of Famer Derek Jeter did when he no longer was an active player.

"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 [Dave] Dombrowski does, but ownership-wise. So, I'd like to be [like] Jeter [was with the Miami Marlins]," he told the insider.

It wouldn't surprise anyone to see the baseball fanatic take over a role where he is in charge of personnel and calls the shots for an organization, and maybe one day he is able to take over a franchise just like Jeter did.

But before that happens, Harper also has another thing he wants to do.

"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. I want to do it really bad ... 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," he revealed.

Again, Phillies fans are hoping that is way down the road for their superstar as he continues to chase his first World Series title and the third for this franchise, but it's always interesting to hear what he might be looking to do when he does eventually retire.