Bryce Harper is only 32 years old. He won his fourth Silver Slugger Award and was named an All-Star for the eighth time in 2024. Harper led the Philadelphia Phillies to a 95-67 record last season. Thus, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be viewed as one of the frontrunners to win National League MVP in 2025, right?
New forecast touts Phillies’ Bryce Harper as 2025 NL MVP
That’s the way one MLB analyst sees it, and then some. Sportskeeda’s Zachary Roberts recently predicted that the two-time NL MVP will take home his third trophy next time out, saying this to justify his position (h/t Newsbreak’s Curt Bishop):
“Bryce Harper is a likely Hall of Famer, but this season might wrap it up for him,” Roberts wrote. “If he wins a third MVP, a total very few have ever reached, there’s nothing keeping him from Cooperstown, and he was an MVP candidate before missing some time last year.”
Harper turned in another outstanding individual campaign last time out. He hit 30 home runs, scored 85 runs, and drove in 87 RBIs behind an exemplary .285/.373/.525 slash line and .898 OPS. That saw him finish No. 6 in the NL MVP race.
Albeit, while those peripherals were worthy of end-of-season recognition last time around, neither of his two MVP campaigns saw him produce any less than 101 runs, 35 home runs, or an OPS south of 1.000. That, coupled with the influx of otherworldly performers in the National League would demand that the Nevada native take his play to another level if he wants to do something that only 12 players have done in MLB history in winning three MVPs.
Harper has mountain to climb to best NL MVP candidates
Harper’s main competition for the sport’s top individual accolade in the NL will be Los Angeles Dodgers superstar and reigning league MVP Shohei Ohtani, as well as New York Mets superstars Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor, and Arizona Diamondbacks talent Ketel Marte.
Ohtani has proven that playing on a bad team like the Los Angeles Angels cannot stop him from winning MVP. He also showed that not being able to flex his muscle as the MLB’s premier dual-threat talent and take the mound in 2024 couldn’t prevent him from outshining his peers either.
The MLB’s first-ever entrant into the 50-50 club will be an incredibly tough talent to beat next time out, adding to the fact that he’s also reigning as World Series champion on the only team who mustered up a better record than Harper’s Phillies in the last 162-game slate.
Soto finished third to his former New York Yankees teammate and reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge, and Kansas City Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. in the 2024 AL MVP race. Now that he is the clear-cut best player on his new team in the Mets, the Dominican talent’s laudatory 7.9 WAR and remarkable efficiency, along with his AL-leading 128 runs, and 41 home runs from last season will give him a great shot to upset Ohtani’s proverbial apple cart for a fourth MVP of his own.
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Harper is capable of triumphing over peers in 2025
Lindor and Marte are two other standout players who have a shot to best those two nonpareil talents in next year’s race. The former wowed with his notable fielding, base-stealing abilities (29 stolen bases), and power hitting (33 home runs), while the latter’s 36 homers came on an efficient .292 batting average and .932 OPS, though his Diamondbacks missed the playoffs.
It would likely take Harper hitting 40-plus home runs along with runs and RBI tallies exceeding 100 apiece for him to seriously triumph over those four in next season’s race. He’s done it before. He can definitely do it again. If the 13-year veteran one-ups himself and leads the Phillies to another dominant tear through the regular season in the win-loss column, that body of work would make a third MVP realistic for him to achieve.
