How Phillies star Bryce Harper retrained himself to throw to alleviate back problem

It took debilitating back pain last season for Bryce Harper to finally start to do something that he always assumed he had learned a long time ago.

Throw like an outfielder.

Harper grew up playing catcher and third base. It wasn’t until he got drafted in 2010 that the Washington Nationals turned him into an outfielder. And although he has played the outfield for nearly 10 years in the big leagues, the Phillies superstar made a startling discovery when he got home after last season and reviewed video to find ways that he could relieve pressure on his lower back.

“I was going over some techniques when I would throw. Things from back when I caught kind of transferred into the outfield,” Harper said Tuesday after playing the outfield in an exhibition game for the first time this spring. “I’ve been doing it for probably 18, 19 years now. Nobody really caught it.”

So, in addition to going through an offseason’s worth of physical therapy to rehab the strained lower-back muscle that rendered him a designated hitter for the final week of last season, Harper went to work on his throwing mechanics.

Or, as he puts it, he started to “reteach myself to throw properly.”

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In layman’s terms, Harper repositioned his feet such that he doesn’t throw across his body as much as he once did. The changes were designed to prevent him from wrenching his back, but also to alleviate stress on his shoulder, elbow, and legs. As Harper said, the adjustment “betters me in all aspects,” no small thing for a player who is known for his violent swing at the plate and occasional overthrows in the outfield.

It took repetition and practice throughout the winter and into spring training with Phillies outfield coach Paco Figueroa to make it all seem like second nature. When Harper arrived in camp, he began a throwing progression from 120 feet to 140 feet, then fielding balls off the wall and throwing them in with more urgency.

And it’s going to require reminders during the season whenever Harper reverts to doing it the way that he has for the last 10 years.

“He’s worked really, really hard on it,” manager Joe Girardi said. “So far, so good.”

Harper made his spring debut in right field three days earlier than Girardi anticipated. The Toronto Blue Jays knocked around Phillies pitching for 21 hits in a 14-5 rout Tuesday, so Harper got plenty of action in the outfield, including digging out Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s RBI double into the right-field corner in the third inning and making a strong throw to second base.

Figueroa will oversee Harper’s throwing technique throughout the season. They have become close in the two years since Harper signed his 13-year, $330 million contract. There’s nobody that Harper trusts more to stay on him if he lapses into old habits.

“I owe a lot to Pac because he finally was the first coach that really has taught me how to play a position other than catcher and third base,” Harper said. “It’s been good to be able to work with him. I actually thanked him at the beginning of camp because he does give me a lot of opportunity to get better.”

Keeping Harper healthy is of the utmost importance to the Phillies. He was batting .343 with seven home runs and a 1.192 OPS at the quarter-pole of last year’s 60-game season. But after his back flared during a late-August series in Atlanta, he went into a 13-for-82 (.159) slide and hit one homer over the next 24 games.

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As disruptive as the lower-back issue proved to be at the plate, it hampered Harper in the outfield even more. The Phillies had to use him as the DH for the final four games and five of the last seven just to keep him in the lineup.

With the DH set to disappear again from the National League, that won’t be an option for Harper this season.

“I’ve had to learn [to play the outfield] at the big-league level for 10-plus years, and it’s been tough every year trying to understand what I needed to do, how I needed to do it out there,” Harper said. “I like the way it’s going right now. I feel strong, I feel good, and I just need to watch myself on certain things when I’m out there so I don’t put stress on a bad area of my body.”

And to think, all it took was relearning how to throw.