CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Baseball is never far from Bryce Harper’s mind.

If he is not playing or working on his game, he is probably thinking about it. He is remembering it. Last August, after he hit an inside-the-park home run at Citizens Bank Park, he remembered details of inside-the-park homers that Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley hit at the Bank more than a decade ago. Last June, after J.T. Realmuto made a ridiculously athletic play at Wrigley Field, Harper mentioned Carlos Ruiz’s play that cinched Roy Halladay’s 2010 postseason no-hitter as a comparison. Just last month, when David Buchanan spoke to Harper about an at-bat they had in 2015, Harper remembered details from it.

“Yeah, 2-0 curveball, homer,” Harper told Buchanan.

Harper’s baseball thoughts extend to other matters, too. He has a shoe deal with Under Armour. The Harper 9s will come out around Memorial Day. Harper and UA designed this year’s shoe in 2022, which means they spent this past offseason working on the Harper 11s, which will debut in 2026.

“I enjoy it,” Harper said. “I’m pretty much full bore as far as what I want to do: low top, high top, colors.”

Harper is known for wearing special cleats and using special bats for special games, like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Jackie Robinson Day, etc. Special cleats are hand-painted for most players, which means they are ruined easily during a game. But Harper works with Under Armour, so each pair is factory made, meaning they will not be destroyed if he slides feet-first into second base or makes a sliding catch on the warning track in foul territory.

“I want everything from the factory,” Harper said. “Just like a car, right? You buy a car, you want factory paint. I don’t want to go to a shop to get them repainted.”

Harper already designed his cleats for the Phillies’ new City Connect uniforms, which will debut in April. He has special cleats for the London Series in June. He has Wawa-inspired cleats and he has Phanatic cleats for Opening Day, which has become a tradition.

Harper has cleats and bats in the works for other games, too.

(The bat for London is fun.)

“I like to represent the city and other Philly teams and things like that,” Harper said. “There’s certain things I’ll just think about. In the middle of January, I’ll be walking through my house and I’ll say to [Harper’s wife] Kayla, ‘Hey, how cool would this be? Like, an arm sleeve that’s the color of my skin, but like green fur coming through it.’ She goes, ‘What is wrong with you? You come up with the most random stuff.’”

Harper laughed.

“It’s so funny because I’ll just say something about the upcoming season, cleat-wise or whatever it is that I’m thinking, and she’ll be like, ‘Yeah, it’s great. I like it,’” he said. “I don’t know. It’s so real for me. It’s funny because people say there’s so much stuff, there’s no way he comes up with it, but I do. I just love it. It’s fun.”

Which Phillies reliever has the most strikeouts in a single season since 1970?

A. Jake Diekman
B. Héctor Neris
C. Ugueth Urbina
D. Al Holland

Nobody has more Grapefruit League at-bats for the Phillies this spring than Johan Rojas, who is trying to secure the job as the Opening Day center fielder. Rojas is slashing .161/.161/.258 with one double, one triple and seven strikeouts in 31 at-bats.

Rojas hasn’t looked great, but Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he isn’t worried.

“I think it’s going to come,” Thomson said Sunday. “He’s had a bit of an overhaul [with his swing]. His lower half isn’t synching up. He’ll get it.”

Before camp opened last month, Thomson said he would not be looking only at batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage to judge Rojas’ performance. He would consider the quality of the at-bats. Is he swinging at good pitches? Is he chasing?

Rojas chased an eye-popping 40.4% of pitches out of the zone last season. That number jumped to 43.5% in the postseason.

He has chased 35.1% of pitches tracked outside of the zone this spring.

The Phillies have told Rojas that he needs be a better bunter. Thomson has told him specific at-bats in games when he needs to bunt. Rojas did not reach base safely on two bunt attempts on Sunday.

“Once the lower half syncs up, he’ll be good to go,” Thomson said. “When that happens, I don’t know.”

The Phillies very much want Rojas to be their center fielder. If, for some reason, that does not happen, Brandon Marsh could move to center and Whit Merrifield could see more regular playing time in left.

B. Neris

Neris struck out 102 batters in 2016.

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