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Ritchie on Harper extension talks: 'Scott Boras should go pound sand'

Contract extension talks between Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper and the organization has become the topic of Spring Training this week.

Harper admitted he would like an extension at some point on Sunday when he arrived in Clearwater saying, "Obviously, I want to be here a long time."


"I love ya, Bryce," Jon Ritchie said on Tuesday's 94WIP Morning Show. "I get this a little bit, but I'm going to make Scott Boras the bad guy here. Maybe in a couple more years if you, Bryce, if you maintain this excellence then things will feel different and Boras won't feel like villain asking for this.

"I think right now Boras should go pound sand. I don't want to mess around with setting a crazy precedent until we absolutely have to. That crazy precedent—he's 31, he signed a deal for 13 years and 330 million dollars. He's only played five years of that. It just doesn't feel quite right to me yet.

"He knew his dilemma was coming because he didn't sign a contract with the opt out in and I do appreciate that opt out concept...He did not want the opt out, Scott Boras always wants to include the opt out just to protect his guys."

Harper has eight years remaining on his deal, set to make $26 million per season through 2028 and then $22 million per season for the final three years. Harper currently makes less, on an annual average basis, than Trea Turner, who makes $27.272 million per season.

"It's not like he's being a jerk about it," Joe DeCamara said. "He's not taking this and pinning the Phils publicly up against the wall, he's sort of putting it out there but he's not being a jerk about it."

"There's two people that want it to work and we'll find a way," Phillies managing partner John Middleton told the Philadelphia Inquirer's Scott Lauber.

On February 7th, Phillies president Dave Dombrowski was asked about a potential Harper extension on 94WIP.

"He's in a situation where you can always desire or want—anybody can—anything that they like," Dombrowski said. "One way I would just say it...we're thrilled that he's on board. We know that he's a Phillie for eight more years."

After Harper's game-winning NLCS home run to beat the Padres in 2022, Middleton said publicly, "I'm thinking that maybe I underpaid him. I told him that tonight. I told that to Scott Boras a while ago."