“This guy in Spring Training this year fit in perfectly with the ballclub in the clubhouse, and there was a maturity about him and professionalism about him that we hadn’t seen the year before,” Mike Rizzo told MLB Network Radio’s Jim Bowden and Jeff Joyce after the Nationals decided to bring 2010 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Harper up to make his major league debut on April 28, 2012, six years ago today.
“This guy’s taken a lot of strides and a lot of steps in his career,” Rizzo continued, “in a short professional career, and I think he’s a guy that, he’s a special guy and he’s got some special skills and the player development guys, every coach and every coordinator, manager, from Bob Boone to Doug Harris, they’ve done a terrific job with this guy, expediting his developmental curve to the point that it gave me the confidence to know that he could handle anything that they throw at him on the big league level.