In his first two seasons with the Phillies, Bryce Harper has been a very good player, and yet many people think he’s been a slight disappointment. I suppose that when a former MVP goes through a well-publicized free agency campaign and signs a massive 13-year contract, people are going to expect big things from him. He was called overrated while still on the Nationals, so it’s only natural that those calls increased after he got paid.
If fans expected Mike Trout-like numbers every year, they were always going to be disappointed. Aside from one season, Harper has never really been at Trout’s level (it should be noted that Trout is probably one of the 20 best players in baseball history), and it wasn’t realistic to expect him to be.