Bryce Harper homers for Phillies before heading to the World Baseball Classic

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Bryce Harper boarded his flight to Arizona on Saturday on a positive note.

In his final at-bat in his final Grapefruit League game before heading to Team USA’s camp in preparation for the World Baseball Classic, Harper bashed a homer to right field. It came off Blue Jays pitcher Connor Seabold in the Phillies’ 7-5 loss to Toronto and marked his first spring training homer since 2022.

Harper said he feels his swing is in a good spot ahead of the tournament. But it can be a big adjustment to go from playing in exhibition games to competition that some Phillies players have compared to playoff games.

“It’s going to be tough,” Harper said. “Guys are going to come in and be ready to go, pitchers being ready to go, guys that played winter ball offseason and things like that, from other Latin American countries or Mexico and a lot of other places. So it’s going to be real, and it’s going to happen real quick.”

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In four spring training games, Harper is 3-for-8 with two doubles to go with the homer. He has three walks and three strikeouts.

“You don’t want to get so amped up and so excited that your swing goes to crap,” he said. “So just try to stay as calm as I can, and the game’s going to speed up no matter what. So I’ve tried to do that pretty much all camp, just trying to get pitches in the zone and swing at strikes and taking the walks when I can. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that for the first four games that I played, but just trying to slow down.”

Brad Keller and Kyle Schwarber joined Harper on the flight to Arizona. Team USA will play exhibition games against the Giants on Tuesday and the Rockies on Wednesday, while pool play will begin Friday in Houston with an opener against Brazil. Great Britain, Mexico, and Italy also are in the U.S. pool. Taijuan Walker is pitching for Mexico, and Aaron Nola is pitching for Italy.

According to Phillies manager Rob Thomson, the players who are gearing up to participate in the tournament have seemed more prepared in camp. Ten members of the Phillies’ 40-man roster currently are set to play.

“They put a lot of work in, not only in the offseason, but some extra work here in spring training,” Thomson said.

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Harper said he’s excited about the potential of facing some of his teammates at the WBC. He could face Cristopher Sánchez in the semifinals or finals if the U.S. and the Dominican Republic advance out of their respective pools.

Harper has never faced Sánchez — not even in a live batting practice session on a backfield — though of course he’s gotten an up-close look from standing in the field with him.

“Really good stuff,” Harper said. “You better pick and choose what you want to swing at, stuff moving all over the place. One of the best in baseball right now from the left side. So it’d definitely be a tall task.”

Harper has a strong international resumé from his youth. He represented the U.S. on the 16U team at the 2008 Pan Am “AA” Championships, and on the 18U team at the 2009 Pan Am “AAA” Championships. Both teams went undefeated en route to a gold medal.

“Had some really good teams and some really good pitching and good groups,” Harper said. “If we can go out there and do what we need to do, then there’s a possibility to do the same thing. I know a lot of guys are looking forward to it. We got a really good group of guys, really good group of pitchers and position players, great staff. Just really looking forward to it.”

Jesús Luzardo pitched a simulated game on Saturday at the Phillies complex. “He was really good,” Thomson said. “Velocity was good, throwing strikes. There’s no intensity level, not the same as in a game. So we’ll see what he’s like in a true game. But today was good.” Luzardo is scheduled to start on Thursday against the Boston Red Sox.