Washington Nationals: Evaluating who gets into Cooperstown
By Brian Foley
On-pace: Bryce Harper
Harper entered the league with such unimaginable hype that it feels like he has underwhelmed in some aspects.
Don’t let the haters fool you – Harper is already on a Hall of Fame pace.
Looking at the totality of his career, Harper has racked up five All-Star appearances, a Silver Slugger, the 2012 NL Rookie of the Year, and the unanimous 2015 NL MVP by age 25.
He also owns 150 career homers, and a sturdy .285/.386/.515 career batting line.
If he can stay healthy, which has been a problem so far in his young career, he will own baseball for a decade. Aaron Judge broke out with a MVP-caliber year in his second season at 25 years old. Harper, who still has not played in his age-25 season, already has six elite years under his belt. Now that he is entering his prime, prepare for some historic numbers that will propel him to Cooperstown.
On top of the elite stats, Harper has that it factor, which is something that matters when counting Hall of Fame votes.
He has been in the spotlight for nearly a decade already, and is a headline-grabbing name. Paul Goldschmidt is a phenomenal player for Arizona, and actually holds a slightly higher career OPS+ than Harper. But fair or not, it is called the Hall of Fame. Harper combines numbers with flair, which should put him over the edge, while players like Goldschmidt strictly rely on statistical arguments.