Former top draft pick skips high-A Potomac
The Nationals promoted star prospect Bryce Harper to Double-A Harrisburg on Monday, moving the organization’s prized outfielder two steps closer to the big leagues.
Harper, 18, had played the first three months of his first pro season at low-A Hagerstown in the South Atlantic League. The No. 1 pick in the 2010 baseball draft — and one of the sport’s most hyped young players ever — Harper more than held his own with a .318 batting average, 14 home runs and 46 RBI in 72 games at that level. A painful bone bruise near his left thumb kept him out of the lineup late in his tenure at low-A. But Washington’s front office felt Harper was ready for a bigger challenge and had him skip high-A Potomac, the organization’s Carolina League affiliate in nearby Woodbridge, Va.
“The competition at Double-A is right where he should be. He needs to be challenged,” Nats manager Davey Johnson said before his team’s 5-4 extra-inning win over the Chicago Cubs on Monday. “Bryce is never going to bite off more than he can chew. I know where he wants to be right now. If he left [Hagerstown], he wants to be up [in Washington].”
Harper will play primarily in left field while playing for the Harrisburg Senators. He played in right field and center field in Hagerstown. According to Nats general manager Mike Rizzo, that will allow Harper to gain a comfort level at each outfield spot and provide some flexibility once he arrives in the majors depending on how the roster in constructed then. Rizzo denied rumors that the notorious poor field conditions at Potomac’s Pfitzner Stadium resulted in Harper’s promotion an extra level to Double-A.
Rizzo also told reporters Monday that Harper will stay at Double-A the rest of this season and that he would like him to get some time in Triple-A, too, before playing a game in Washington. Harper, who will not turn 19 until Oct. 16, singled in his first at-bat for Harrisburg on Monday night in a home game against Erie.
