Bryce Harper Hypes Up Phillies Teammates, Talks Avenging WBC Loss to Japan

Bryce Harper was a guest Monday on the Pat McAfee Show as Team USA warms up for the World Baseball Classic out in Arizona and was asked about his excitement level entering the tournament, how the U.S. hockey team's recent Olympic gold medal inspired him, avenging the loss to Japan and more.

Harper left Phillies camp on Saturday along with teammates Kyle Schwarber and Brad Keller to join a U.S. squad that is favored to win the WBC but could have some serious competition in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and the reigning champion Japan, which beat USA in 2023.

Harper homered Saturday in Dunedin, then acknowledged afterward in the visiting clubhouse at TD Ballpark that it's going to be a rapid shift mentally from exhibition games in the Grapefruit League to must-win games in an October-like tournament.

"It happens quick," he said. "You'd better hurry up and flip it because it's going to be really tough. Guys are going to come in ready to go, pitchers will be ready to go, guys who have been playing Winter Ball all offseason in Latin American countries.

"It's going to be real and it's going to happen real quick."

Wearing the colors

This is Harper's first time playing in the Classic, but he repped the USA twice as an amateur with the 2008 16U national team and 2009 18U national team. The teams went a combined 16-0 and won both tournaments.

"Growing up, being able to represent my country as a junior, there was nothing like it, going into different countries and wearing USA and wearing the colors," he said on the Pat McAfee Show.

"There's nothing like representing your country. I'm so proud to be an American, I'm so proud to be here and represent out country in a great light. We don't care where you're from, what you do, walks of life, all that kind've stuff. You put USA on your chest and we're all family here. We're excited to get going."

Inspired by Olympic hockey

"Seeing the women's hockey, men's hockey take gold in a 'football country,' we're making hockey ours right now," Harper said. "For the next four years at least, it's ours. What an incredible experience to be able to watch them play and do their thing. The Hughes brothers, just unbelievable.

"I'm such a hockey fan, I love the game of hockey, just the culture, the way they go about it, popping a tooth and still in a game. To take that and come into what we're doing now, just the swagger we need to have."

Blend of cultures

"The cool thing about baseball and the World Baseball Classic or the Olympics is you see the culture of everything of baseball, from the Dominican Republic to Japan to us," Harper said.

"It's such a fun time for fans to be able to see it. Even people that don't watch it as much, you're going to see the culture that baseball brings and the swagger and everything else. Because baseball's kind've, 'Can they have the swagger, can they do these kinds of things?' But you're going to see that from us, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Japan, everyone. It's going to be a lot of fun."

On avenging Team USA's 2023 loss

Team USA lost to Japan in the WBC final with the game ending in an at-bat of Shohei Ohtani pitching to Mike Trout. Ohtani threw a couple of triple-digit fastballs and struck Trout out on a full-count slider to end the tournament.

"As we were all watching that, in the moment, everybody wanted that Mike Trout at-bat," Harper said. "All of us wanted that at-bat and we all wanted Trout to come through, especially facing Shohei and them being teammates and all that.

"We have so much respect for (Japan) and what they do. That's their national game, baseball is their game. Being able to take it back, understanding what we need to do as a team, that's a great, fundamentally sound team in Japan. Hopefully we get the chance to play them again and we'll see what happens."

Who's the glue guy?

Harper was asked about clubhouse leadership on Team USA and mentioned Schwarber and Aaron Judge. Schwarber isn't just a leader in the Phillies' clubhouse, he's one in every clubhouse he walks into.

"Schwarbs, for sure," he said. "He just has that demeanor. Judgey too, man, just the way he approaches it. Obviously, he plays in such a big market in New York and he's got to be that guy. There's nobody else I'd rather be wearing the captain's 'C' on his chest than Judgey. I'm excited to play with him, I've been excited the whole time. We've got such a great group of guys. We've got a lot of really good young guys, pretty good flavor in there as well."

Picking the Phillies

At one point, McAfee joked to Harper about San Francisco Giants fans chirping him during the appearance. Giants spring training is in Arizona and there were some in the vicinity.

"They probably were thinking, man, he could have been here with the Giants but he's not," Harper said. He's mentioned a few times lately that the Giants were his runner-up choice to the Phillies in the offseason before 2019.

"It was like San Diego and a couple of other teams but it came down to Phillies, Giants. The thing that killed me was (Bruce) Bochy was retiring. He's the greatest of all time."

On modern pitching being better than ever

Harper heaped praise on Paul Skenes for his ability to throw pitches that move in opposite directions from the same arm slot, then cited two of his own teammates.

"Repertoire wise, Zack Wheeler is one of the best in baseball. I mean, his fastball's the best I've ever seen," he said. "Just high heater fastball, 98, here you go.

"Cristopher Sanchez, he's one of my teammates too, he's with the Dominican, he just, I mean, the two-seamer and changeup is just elite."

Harper was asked if he'd have an advantage facing Sanchez.

"No, absolutely not," he said with a laugh. "My only thing advantage-wise is I don't think he wants to hit me. Because if he hits me and breaks my hand, Philadelphia is going to be like what the heck."

Avoiding injury in the WBC

"You can't think about it. We could be in spring training facing somebody on the back field and he absolutely just lets one go and you get drilled," Harper said. "It happens. I don't think anybody's going to think about that."

Team USA's pool play schedule is March 6 against Brazil, March 7 vs. Great Britain, March 9 vs. Mexico and March 10 vs. Italy. They're the clear titan of Pool B.